Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

In your experience, what is it like to be or grow old (whatever your definition of old is) from the physical health aspect and the general frailty of the aging human body?

What are the health related struggles that have come into your life or have gotten worse because of increased age and how have you dealt with them?

With your experience and knowledge, what would you advise younger people (or even your own younger self of decades past, if you could)?

‘What advice would I give my younger self’ also doesn’t compute. Because that would mean that I would end up with entirely different life experience and the person giving the advice would not exist as they would have changed. In sci fi, this would be the classic causal loop/temporal paradox time travel dilemma.

If this is about health, you are better off obtaining a DNA report and go through the high risk illnesses you have inherited with your physician. I did this and was able to identify a few things missed by my previous maternal units. Some of them probably died because one mutation was undiagnosed.

From a dietary perspective, follow the grandmother diet. Eat what your longest living ancestors lived. It helps if you haven’t migrated far off.

P.S: Don’t rely on dna ancestry reports migrations. I am South East Asian and ancestry report suggested that I had a Finnish ancestor. I doubt if I can follow the Sami diet. In California. So there is that...

My suggestion is to draw a family tree for upto 4-7 generations. 7 is ideal but would be tough for most.

"Cohort" is the year you are born. This might make you a Baby Boomer, X, Y, Z, ... You keep your cohort throughout your life.

The cohort who got physics PhD's prior to 1968 got jobs in the field easily (e.g. most were good at physics, it didn't matter how good you were at musical chairs); after 1968 the job situation changed (you certainly were good at music chairs.) This is a function of when you were born.

How to do this is of course hard. Meditation helps me. Relationships. Balancing my consumption of news. Staying away from histrionic people that drive that anxiety (read Twitter). Taking a break from that which bothers me (developing hobbies and other interests).

Even as I get older I increasingly have a sense that all attempts to control will be resisted by others. Even when you have their best interests at heart. People willfully, sometimes ignorantly make their own big mistakes to resist being controlled. Sometimes though we’re not as smart as we think we are. This applies to so many situations, including work, politics, and parenting!

In work situations I am conscious more and more of wanting to lead by following, stepping back, let other people be in charge and get the glory. It’s really the most sustainable path for a sane life. Instead of doing, teach. Instead of teach, listen to other people’s wisdom. Paradoxically by being silent and non-action can sometimes have the biggest impact.