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I'm in my early forties, and I've been having the same worries you list the whole time. And the answer (for me, so far) is....it's complicated. I definitely t

I'm in my early forties, and I've been having the same worries you list the whole time. And the answer (for me, so far) is....it's complicated. I definitely think I have a harder time processing new ideas. OTOH, I have a lot more context to connect them to, so I feel like I end up with a better understanding when I DO get them. I also have a wider perspective to decide WHAT I want to spend my precious time learning. When I do learn something, I'm less likely to think it's the answer to everything, while I'm still able to get excited and enjoy how much easier this makes many of my tasks. And it's really hard for me to say how much is REALLY having a harder time grasping new ideas, and how much is a mix of (1) that additional context, which makes it harder/longer before I feel the sense that I truly "get" it (2) the overwhelming sense of how many things I DON'T know that makes it feel like "I'm not learning like I used to". Docker has been on my list to learn for ~4 years, even though I've used it indirectly for most of that time, for example, but it's not that I haven't been learning new concepts in that time - I've just not been able to find free time where Docker has been on the top of my list. Kubernetes shows up on HN, and I've not done more than googled the general idea. Are these omissions because I don't have the capability to learn as well, or because I've got a very full schedule and mental web of connections to fit them into? No way to be sure - I don't know of any way to quantify them. I try to make sure that I end each week being able to say I learned something new, and while those bits are often small, they are also often significant in my day-to-day. Also, don't discount the impacts of physical decay on the psychological. Being unable to sit comfortably for long stretches, the wear and tear of a million tiny aches - they may as much to blame for psychological limitations from age as any direct neurological degradation.

dahkkerr 8y ago
Docker has been on my list to learn for ~4 years Docker doesn't do anything shell scripts and zip files couldn't accomplish. The only thing Docker does is distinguish a class of human oriented activities, such that everyone is talking about the same goals, and explaining ideas about the same conceptual objects, at the same time, across all platforms (Windows, Linux, Apple, BSD, AWS, VMware, Vbox), disciplines and job roles. The DBA, the front-end JS developer, the sysadmin, the API developer, the SRE, the product team, the project managers, the tier one support and CRM call center, all of them are talking about the thing that standardizes virtual servers. It's not that docker is particularly useful or special, but more to the point, different people are talking about doing the same thing the same way, and hopefully in 50 lines or less, because pressing the power button on a working computer, and plugging in the network cable needs to be made that simple, so that people can stop tripping over themselves about that least important of pizza topping conversations.
empath75 8y ago
I’m 40 and it’s less that I can’t learn new ideas and it’s more that I have fairly settled ideas about how the world works and it’s hard for me to fully integrate new concepts without relearning a lot of other things at the same time. I can learn new things as well as I could before, it just takes a bit of effort to clear space for it, as it were.
- Izkata 8y ago
  That you used the word "relearn" responding to a comment that mentions docker kinda hits it exactly for me: it's hard to get excited about a new way to do the same old thing, whereas when younger you don't yet have enough understanding/experience for it to have reached "same old thing" status.
zamfi 8y ago
I also wonder if there's a subtle psychological effect here: You, in particular, sound like you know a whole lot about at least a few things. But, that means when you tackle something new, the "know a lot about it" bar is set really high. You're already an expert at X, so you know how hard it is to become an expect at something, and when you start learning Y, it's clear how hard you have to work in order to get close to the same magnitude as your knowledge of X. As a result, it feels like it "takes longer" to learn stuff. But maybe it's just more stuff? I think I heard this argument first made by Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame).
5partan 8y ago
>I've just not been able to find free time where Docker has been on the top of my list. Wasting your time on futile sentences like this tells me that you have more free time than you can handle.
- ergothus 8y ago
  > Wasting your time on futile sentences like this tells me that you have more free time than you can handle. I have no idea what you mean by this, but thanks for adding to the amount of joy in the universe.
  - 5partan 8y ago
    Not being able to find free time, top of my list, if you enjoy to live in contradictions, so be it.
everdrive 8y ago
I'm almost 35 and have had the same experiences. My internal threshold for believing that I "know something" is set far higher than it was when I was in my 20s. And, for certain, I've tackled problems of greater complexity in the last 5 years than had ever been placed before me during my "best thinking years." I've even kept, and returned to, a couple of papers I wrote during college. I was very impressed with them when I wrote them, but in recollection they're very simple and naive, but embarrassingly confident given those limitations. Although I do feel slower mentally, any impact in actual output has been more than offset by the improved patience and impulse control that comes with age. Perhaps some folks out there had great impulse control when they were 23, but not me. The topics I handled from 30-34 would have been impossible for me at 20-24: They were too intimidating, took too long to learn, required that I had to accept that I couldn't grasp them easily or quickly, required longitudinal and short-term focus. (ie, not only sticking to topic for 8 hours a day, but also sticking to the overall effort for 4-5 years.) To the parent post, I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that you shouldn't worry so much about it. You'll never be in your 20s again, and when you're in your 30s and 40s things will feel "normal." If you're not slowing down by 30 and 40, then don't worry: you'll eventually slow down at 50, 60, 70, etc. There are phases to life that you can't return to. You'll feel differently about them in hindsight than you felt during the time, so in some sense your fears may be moot.

dahkkerr 8y ago

Docker has been on my list to learn for ~4 years Docker doesn't do anything shell scripts and zip files couldn't accomplish. The only thing Docker does is distinguish a class of human oriented activities, such that everyone is talking about the same goals, and explaining ideas about the same conceptual objects, at the same time, across all platforms (Windows, Linux, Apple, BSD, AWS, VMware, Vbox), disciplines and job roles. The DBA, the front-end JS developer, the sysadmin, the API developer, the SRE, the product team, the project managers, the tier one support and CRM call center, all of them are talking about the thing that standardizes virtual servers. It's not that docker is particularly useful or special, but more to the point, different people are talking about doing the same thing the same way, and hopefully in 50 lines or less, because pressing the power button on a working computer, and plugging in the network cable needs to be made that simple, so that people can stop tripping over themselves about that least important of pizza topping conversations.

empath75 8y ago

I’m 40 and it’s less that I can’t learn new ideas and it’s more that I have fairly settled ideas about how the world works and it’s hard for me to fully integrate new concepts without relearning a lot of other things at the same time. I can learn new things as well as I could before, it just takes a bit of effort to clear space for it, as it were.

Izkata 8y ago
That you used the word "relearn" responding to a comment that mentions docker kinda hits it exactly for me: it's hard to get excited about a new way to do the same old thing, whereas when younger you don't yet have enough understanding/experience for it to have reached "same old thing" status.

zamfi 8y ago

I also wonder if there's a subtle psychological effect here: You, in particular, sound like you know a whole lot about at least a few things. But, that means when you tackle something new, the "know a lot about it" bar is set really high. You're already an expert at X, so you know how hard it is to become an expect at something, and when you start learning Y, it's clear how hard you have to work in order to get close to the same magnitude as your knowledge of X. As a result, it feels like it "takes longer" to learn stuff. But maybe it's just more stuff? I think I heard this argument first made by Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame).

5partan 8y ago

>I've just not been able to find free time where Docker has been on the top of my list. Wasting your time on futile sentences like this tells me that you have more free time than you can handle.

ergothus 8y ago
> Wasting your time on futile sentences like this tells me that you have more free time than you can handle. I have no idea what you mean by this, but thanks for adding to the amount of joy in the universe.
- 5partan 8y ago
  Not being able to find free time, top of my list, if you enjoy to live in contradictions, so be it.

everdrive 8y ago

I'm almost 35 and have had the same experiences. My internal threshold for believing that I "know something" is set far higher than it was when I was in my 20s. And, for certain, I've tackled problems of greater complexity in the last 5 years than had ever been placed before me during my "best thinking years." I've even kept, and returned to, a couple of papers I wrote during college. I was very impressed with them when I wrote them, but in recollection they're very simple and naive, but embarrassingly confident given those limitations. Although I do feel slower mentally, any impact in actual output has been more than offset by the improved patience and impulse control that comes with age. Perhaps some folks out there had great impulse control when they were 23, but not me. The topics I handled from 30-34 would have been impossible for me at 20-24: They were too intimidating, took too long to learn, required that I had to accept that I couldn't grasp them easily or quickly, required longitudinal and short-term focus. (ie, not only sticking to topic for 8 hours a day, but also sticking to the overall effort for 4-5 years.) To the parent post, I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that you shouldn't worry so much about it. You'll never be in your 20s again, and when you're in your 30s and 40s things will feel "normal." If you're not slowing down by 30 and 40, then don't worry: you'll eventually slow down at 50, 60, 70, etc. There are phases to life that you can't return to. You'll feel differently about them in hindsight than you felt during the time, so in some sense your fears may be moot.