About A Few Years Ahead

I’m Rob Ransom. I’m 77, although not for much longer.

I was born and brought up in Britain and spent most of the first 40 years of my life there. Along the way I lived for a year in the Netherlands, two years in Germany, and spent time working on research projects in Spain and Italy. Eventually life brought me to the United States, where I’ve now spent much of the second half of my life.

I’ve never followed a particularly straight career path.

I started out in academia and have probably had five distinct careers since then. I’ve written technical books, mainly about the use of computers in biology, and was a contributing editor to MacUser magazine in the UK, where I wrote articles and reviewed software and hardware. I’ve written educational materials about subjects ranging from whales and dolphins to rainforests and African mammals, and spent many years developing e-learning materials for the pharmaceutical industry.

There have been a few other detours along the way, including real estate and a year working in the IT department of a merchant bank.

Looking back, I rather like the fact that it didn’t all go according to plan.

And I’m still interested in new things.

I play guitar. I travel. I’ve been fascinated by computers and technology for most of my adult life, and I’m intrigued by what artificial intelligence might mean for people of my generation. I enjoy researching things, comparing alternatives and occasionally disappearing down a rabbit hole simply because I want to know the answer.

I’m also discovering that getting older isn’t quite what I expected.

There are certainly things about being in your 70s that I’d happily trade for the body I had at 40. But there are compensations: experience, perspective, a little more freedom and, perhaps most importantly, the realization that there is still plenty to look forward to.

That’s what A Few Years Ahead is about.

I’ll write about getting older, but this isn’t intended to be a publication about old age. I’ll also write about Britain, Europe and America; travel; technology and AI; music and guitar; things I’ve researched; things I’ve bought; things I’ve changed my mind about; and whatever else seems interesting enough to investigate.

Some pieces will be based on experience. Some will be opinion. Others will start with a question and follow wherever the research takes me.

I don’t claim to have all the answers. After 77 years, I’m increasingly suspicious of anyone who does.

But I’ve accumulated a few experiences, made plenty of mistakes, learned some things along the way—and I’m still curious about what happens next.

That’s the view from here.

Rob Ransom
A Few Years Ahead

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