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I'm only 31, but I've noticed a considerable decline in my mental ability over the last decade. My ability to learn and adapt at 16-21 was immense compared to t

by kypro 5y ago

I'm only 31, but I've noticed a considerable decline in my mental ability over the last decade. My ability to learn and adapt at 16-21 was immense compared to today. I could pick up new programming languages or learn a skill easily back then. I was also more creative and there was rarely a day I wasn't coming up with some new project or business idea. On top of the mental decline I've also noticed I'm just more tired and less driven generally. Even if I have a good idea and I'm able to learn what I need to learn to execute on it, I can't convince myself to do the all nighters or the networking to make my idea a success anymore. I guess it's not all so bad though. I still feel sharp and physical capable for my age. I also have a ton of knowledge about the world generally and I feel my predictive ability in recent years has gotten far better. I just know how things are going to play out and how people will react to things if that makes sense. For the first time in my life I'm really starting to appreciate the wisdom my dad has too. It's quite funny how much advice of his I've dismissed over the years only to find out later that he was probably right.

sydthrowaway 5y ago
Same, but I think the reasons are more complicated. Our body is failing. We get hungry, thirstier, and sleepier much quicker. Find a way to fix these, and you will remediate your issue. And start taking Lion's Mane NOW.
jstummbillig 5y ago
Between 21 and 31, what changed in your life other than your age? I find that people often confuse the effects of ageing with the side effects of ageing when judging their performance in various areas of their lives.
Xcelerate 5y ago
I thought “peak brain ability” was mid to late 20s; is it earlier? Although I suppose a lot of the greatest breakthroughs in physics were done by people in their early twenties. I’m also 31 and haven’t yet noticed a change in my ability to learn new things quickly (for some reason abstract topics like category theory seem easier to understand now than in my mid-twenties). But I know a decline is coming, and I’m really dreading that. I will say there are a lot of confounding factors in life that cause changes that I think many people misattribute to age. As a personal example, getting married, having a kid, and taking a job at a large tech company have eaten away most of my time for creative thinking. I used to tinker away at various projects for hours on end. And while I get tired more easily now, I actually chalk this up more so to being sedentary during the pandemic than age related factors. The best marathoners in the world tend to be in their late 20s or early 30s, so I don’t think my potential to pull all-nighters has changed as much as my current physical shape. > less driven generally This is one thing that hasn’t changed for me. Everyone says when you get married and have kids your motivation to pursue far-out ideas drops drastically, but I haven’t noticed this at all. If anything, I find that I’m more driven now because I feel like I’m running out of time to accomplish (or at least attempt to accomplish) the main things I want to do in life. Yes, it’s a bit more of a challenge to find time, but looking back I can see where I wasted massive chunks of time in my 20s, so it’s nothing that better time management and prioritization can’t fix.
fzeroracer 5y ago
I've had the opposite mental trend. In my teenage years and early 20s my mental abilities took a dive off a cliff. Especially during my teenage years, due to other factors as well as frequently being ill. Now that I'm in my early-30s I feel far more creative and generally have the ability to learn at my own time and pace, as opposed to having to do so in a classroom environment. I think the problem is a lot of people tend to confuse a decline in mental ability with things like work-related burnout, a build-up of invisible stress or other compounding life factors. Rather than assuming that it's tied to age, I think it's better to try and assess other factors that you might be ignoring or simply haven't thought of in a while.
bitcuration 5y ago
A side effect of growing wisdom and your ability of predicting how world and other people move is that you tend to get to the point, taking shortcut and skip all the less meaningful details. This might be related to why you felt less driven to put effort on trying things, especially those require tedious attention as you feel you've already known what it would be. This definitely have something to do with how the brain is wired after years of experiencing and learning. Not necessarily a result of aging.

by kypro 5y ago

sydthrowaway 5y ago

Same, but I think the reasons are more complicated. Our body is failing. We get hungry, thirstier, and sleepier much quicker. Find a way to fix these, and you will remediate your issue. And start taking Lion's Mane NOW.

jstummbillig 5y ago

Between 21 and 31, what changed in your life other than your age? I find that people often confuse the effects of ageing with the side effects of ageing when judging their performance in various areas of their lives.

Xcelerate 5y ago

I thought “peak brain ability” was mid to late 20s; is it earlier? Although I suppose a lot of the greatest breakthroughs in physics were done by people in their early twenties. I’m also 31 and haven’t yet noticed a change in my ability to learn new things quickly (for some reason abstract topics like category theory seem easier to understand now than in my mid-twenties). But I know a decline is coming, and I’m really dreading that. I will say there are a lot of confounding factors in life that cause changes that I think many people misattribute to age. As a personal example, getting married, having a kid, and taking a job at a large tech company have eaten away most of my time for creative thinking. I used to tinker away at various projects for hours on end. And while I get tired more easily now, I actually chalk this up more so to being sedentary during the pandemic than age related factors. The best marathoners in the world tend to be in their late 20s or early 30s, so I don’t think my potential to pull all-nighters has changed as much as my current physical shape. > less driven generally This is one thing that hasn’t changed for me. Everyone says when you get married and have kids your motivation to pursue far-out ideas drops drastically, but I haven’t noticed this at all. If anything, I find that I’m more driven now because I feel like I’m running out of time to accomplish (or at least attempt to accomplish) the main things I want to do in life. Yes, it’s a bit more of a challenge to find time, but looking back I can see where I wasted massive chunks of time in my 20s, so it’s nothing that better time management and prioritization can’t fix.

fzeroracer 5y ago

I've had the opposite mental trend. In my teenage years and early 20s my mental abilities took a dive off a cliff. Especially during my teenage years, due to other factors as well as frequently being ill. Now that I'm in my early-30s I feel far more creative and generally have the ability to learn at my own time and pace, as opposed to having to do so in a classroom environment. I think the problem is a lot of people tend to confuse a decline in mental ability with things like work-related burnout, a build-up of invisible stress or other compounding life factors. Rather than assuming that it's tied to age, I think it's better to try and assess other factors that you might be ignoring or simply haven't thought of in a while.

bitcuration 5y ago

A side effect of growing wisdom and your ability of predicting how world and other people move is that you tend to get to the point, taking shortcut and skip all the less meaningful details. This might be related to why you felt less driven to put effort on trying things, especially those require tedious attention as you feel you've already known what it would be. This definitely have something to do with how the brain is wired after years of experiencing and learning. Not necessarily a result of aging.