I am 35 and I so wish if I could be half as sharp as 23 year old self: Below are some of things that are helping to an extent. > Notes and deliberate practice

I am 35 and I so wish if I could be half as sharp as 23 year old self: Below are some of things that are helping to an extent. > Notes and deliberate practice of tools or concepts. When my father neared his retirement, he would wake up at 4.30 AM and used to make plenty of notes/diagrams relating to his work. And he used to go through them every day like a monk. Now I relate that method to strengthening of neural connection/pathways by kind of deliberate practice (as in learning to learn course from coursera) or in easy terms he was trying his best to catchup work. Im kind of following it. > Abstraction and analogy. Abstract a new skill and make an analogy to what you already know. Analogy can be made to an old skill or a new mental picture that you can create for yourself. Google image search for understanding abstract concepts is underestimated. Search for angular architecture or react architecture in google images - you get straight into some good architecture diagrams. You can save an hour of time by getting big chunks of a framework within a minute. > Tools, tools and tools: A geeky senior colleague gave me this good advise - as an experienced programmer you don't learn new language/frameworks - you learn new IDE, tools, plugins, shortcuts, templates related to it. And master every little thing about that tool and work backwards. Language, frameworks kind of change and become obsolete - but methods of learning tools is a very reliable way of learning something new. > Pick a lighter skill or work on a skill natural to your style. Easier said than done. I used to struggle with low level hardware stuff (drivers etc) at work since I didn't have good footing earlier in my education/career with hardware but I was stuck being a system programmer closely related to hardware. Moving away from low level C to C++ -> mobile apps -> python -> node. My mental blocks are gone. I kind of feel light now and feel excited to code. > Exercise, meditation, fresh fruits and nuts. We underestimate fresh fruits and nuts. It was a BBC documentary I think - where they showcased how eating plenty of fruits and nuts kind of helped your brain to become sharper and younger (they do balance test with eyes closed or something). I have seen some of very fit colleagues of mine in late 40's mine eating carrots, fruits and peanuts for lunch. (Though I got to try it sometime) > Little or no alcohol and more sleep.