The young are less interested in what the old have to say than the old think they ought to be, but if any oldie talk does interest young people it is about how elders got into their lines of work. The Bildungsroman about one's coming of age by getting into bed and into one's profession (usually not the same thing) tends to sell, even when as lachrymose as Werther. I was at table with B. F. Skinner shortly after the appearance of his surprisingly popular autobiography, Particulars of My Life (Skinner, 1976), which he ended with his decision at age 25 not to be a novelist (a decision that readers of his Walden Two will regard as wise) but instead to go into psychology. When I asked him if he planned to write a sequel that would describe his life as a psychologist, Skinner said probably not, because few people outside one's field are interested in hearing about what happens to one after age 25. Apparently he changed his mind later, because two subsequent autobiographical volumes appeared, providing an account of his intellectual Odyssey as psychologist. Disappointing sales may have left his publisher wishing Skinner had held to his initial resolve to end his “Life” when he began his work.

ENTERING A LIFE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

How Did You Get into This Field?

Youths' interest in how elders heard their calling probably reflects uncertainty about their own vocations, but elders' descriptions tend to be of little help.