“This research supports the idea
that late midlife is a time of possible positive change and that one has the power to work toward personal growth, fulfillment, understanding and acceptance. ”
Hollen Reischer, Visiting Assistant Professor
University at Buffalo, Department of Psychology
Late midlife often brings more than gray hair and regret. As Hollen Reischer’s recent study shows, many people begin to reinterpret their lives, weaving hardship and success into a richer, more coherent story (Reischer, 2025). This process — narrative self-transcendence — isn't about denying pain, but finding meaning in it. The events themselves don't change. The way we see them does.
Ontology engineering faces a similar task. Ontologies don't just store facts; they impose structure on complexity. They decide what distinctions matter and what patterns endure. In building ontologies for solitude and gerotranscendence, we aren’t simply cataloging experiences — we’re formalizing interpretations that, until now, have lived in scattered fields and shifting vocabularies.
Reischer’s work reminds us that growth is not about acquiring more, but interpreting better. Solitude, too, plays its role: not as mere isolation, but as space for re-narration. Quiet moments allow us to redraw the map of ourselves, connecting disparate experiences into something comprehensible.
Good ontology work mirrors this quiet architecture. It clarifies without flattening. It allows reinterpretation without erasing complexity. It is, in its way, a technical act of transcendence — aligning data points into a form that admits not just coherence, but growth.
There is something surprisingly human here: the same instinct that drives a solitary reflection at midlife drives the best efforts to structure knowledge. In both cases, we aren't chasing precision for its own sake. We are looking for meaning.