Ask HN: Have you experienced decline in problem-solving skills? How to improve?

Anything that will get your heartrate into zone 2 and keep it there for the duration of the exercise. It really depends on what you prefer to do since being consistent with it is the most important thing. If you're unsure, you could always join a gym with a decent selection of equipment and try each of the machines for a week and see which one you feel like sticking with. If you don't want to go to a gym then your options are more limited, pretty much just the ones you listed.

If you don't really do any exercise at all at the moment I'd recommend starting with just walking for 45 minutes, you'll need to do that or some other low intensity exercise for a while to build up to being able to doing 45 minutes of fairly intense cardio. Do a search on YouTube for "how to start running" and you'll find a lot of good plans that you can use and they generalize pretty well to other types of cardio.

Apologies for the wrong interpretation, but I'm still skeptical. The generic drug market is huge, this drug in particular is already approved and in wide use for fertility treatment meaning that it's already passed safety trials. Getting approval for a secondary usage would be less costly than starting from scratch and there would likely be a huge market for this. There is absolutely money to be made from anyone who wants to get in this market.

It's hard to stay motivated/sharp if you feel sick, fatigued, achey, etc. So I recommend taking a close look at your health... more specifically how you actually physically feel day to day, alongside looking for potential causes. Keep a health journal if you have to. Believe it or not, most people don't realize how some things subtly affect them.

Take this for example. Every couple of weeks or so, I noticed my stomach would ache, and bowel movements would burn. Wasn't sure why, but it turns out, it entirely coincided with me chewing gum or lying down after a large meal. Ceasing to do these things removed these acid reflux symptoms I'd occasionally get. Now I don't have this problem anymore.

Another example. I use to get migraines with aura almost every weekend. Again, wasn't sure why until I figured out it was due to my caffeine consumption. I use to drink coffee during weekdays at work, but would avoid caffeine otherwise. This meant I would undergo a caffeine withdrawal every weekend, and it in turn would trigger my migraines. So I cut out all caffeine from my diet (including chocolate) 2 years ago, and I haven't had a migraine since. I now sleep easier, focus better, and my mood is more stable.

Both of these changes have improved how I feel, which in turn have improved my stress tolerance and motivation for things, which I think has helped me on cognitive tasks. Maybe there are similar changes you can find and make.

This echo chamber might have a lot to do with it.

Get the hell away. Now. For several weeks.

Make decisions for yourself instead of consulting the great HN oracle.

You'll be glad you did.

Psychiatry observes that in the 20s, most people cannot see their own failures, but in their 30s, most people can.

Think about someone you know who is around your age, and who you knew in your and their early 20s. Now, imagine them creating something that's fit to their personality. Programming, cooking, writing, whatever. Assume that what they created is pretty good for them, and fairly good for everyone. My personal experience with people suggests that the 20s version will be exaggeratedly proud, whereas the 30s person will be asking contemporaries for advice on how to improve.

My personal belief is that this is driven by the 20 year old thinking the work is genuinely great, and the 30 year old thinking "geez, I could do better than this, have I been wasting my talent?"

I would wager that it's likely that you're simply becoming more discerning. It's unsettling, but positive, in the net.

Genuine cognitive decline is currently believed by medical science to kick in in the late 40s or early 50s for most people.

Another significant possibility is sleep quality, which for some people declines drastically in the 30s (often tied to weight.) Sleep quality has a huge amount to do with cognitive performance. Do you wake up tired a lot? Do you snore? Have you ever been checked for sleep apnea, which a little over a third of humanity has? My getting a CPAP really deeply changed my mental state. My doctor said that they thought I hadn't had a genuinely good sleep in more than a decade. It takes about a month to start feeling okay again.

It is genuinely worth talking to a good doctor about this. They will be much better than the wisdom of the crowds.