I'm with you on this one. I used to find those stories so boring. Old people are awesome, and I've learned a shit ton from being around them. I love that they can answer questions like, "is this reaction to Benghazi very different from the Iran embassy hostage thing in '79?" Their answer may lead into a tangent about some significant other they decided to hate in hindsight, and they may go on a tirade about how Obama is a "jive-ass motherfucker from Chicago" afterward, but it's always interesting and often funny nonetheless.As far as what I hated and now love - conversations with older people. Those stories that grandpa used to tell you every single Christmas or that drunk oldschooler at the bar who keeps interrupting your story to tell you. They're crazy. They may not be entirely true. There may or may not be a point. They may ramble until oblivion and miss 4 different points and end up on Mars.
I used to co-moderate a small subreddit with a very nice lady in her 50s. She gave up on Reddit because she got sick of all the missed opportunities. The basic facts of life that, to her, were self-evident, were called into question every day... and in order to add anything to the conversation, she'd have to go "okay, I'm 50, I've been on the planet two or three times as long as you, and I've learned a few things" and then put forth her notions for defense, not for edification. Not to say "respect your elders" but I find that if you are open and interested and accept what someone who's been around longer than you has to say, you'll get a perspective you likely haven't considered. And to say that one of the primary hindrances to Internet communication is that in person, we know whether we're talking to a kid or a grandmother. On the Internet, we have to assume we're talking to a grandmother that acts like a kid or a kid that acts like a grandmother or a grandmother pretending to be a kid or a room full of preschoolers that know how to type. it's a hindrance to legitimate information transfer.