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 thei

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.