91av

Letter: One group that superager studies might have missed

Published 8 July 2026

From Wai Wong, Victoria, Australia

As an introvert, I don’t have a wide social network. After reading various studies on superagers that recommended socialising, I wondered if I need to spend more time doing so to keep sharp (20 June, p 38).

However, after more research, I found that a lot of intelligent people kept working into their 80s, like Thomas Edison, the composer John Williams and a number of Nobel laureates. They may not be the kind of people you would encounter in farmers’ markets and retirement communities, and they may be too busy to enroll in superager studies, so this research may not apply to them. This puts me at ease with my preferred activities of learning and solving puzzles, not socialising.

Issue no. 3603 published 11 July 2026

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