Age-gap friendships are the cheat code to leveling up at work

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Beyond my algorithm

I was sitting inside Estiatorio Milos in Hudson Yards at a table convened by ColorComm founder Lauren Wesley Wilson, who was hosting a conversation with media executives last December.

Her closing question has stuck with me since: What's one piece of often unspoken advice that's truly helped in your career? For me, investing in age-gap friendships is one of the underrated ways I've sharpened my strategic thinking at work.

As I've settled into suburban life just outside New York City and climbed the corporate ladder, I've met wonderful people. They just weren't millennials. They were older; they were younger — but they each provided me with a petri dish of cultural understanding that I just couldn't get on my algorithms.

I have found that age-gap friendships have given me cultural fluency that I could apply at work, too. They gave insight into different ways of thinking, alternative tastes in music and books, and firsthand context into so many of the themes we explore here at Business Insider — from entering the workforce to retirement.

I'm not the only one who's noticed this. After meeting 97-year-old Bryan Hipwell at a bakery in 2020, 40-year-old writer Melissa Noble said her "life is so much richer" because of their age-gap friendship.

"Getting together with Bryan is like travelling back in time to another world," she wrote in a 2025 essay. "Bryan was born in the 1920s and has lived an incredible life…Our conversations are often rich and varied, and inevitably, I end up learning something new."

If you're looking to get an edge at work — or in life — don't discount friendships outside your age bracket. Some of the most valuable relationships don't come labeled "mentor."