> among adults over the age of 60
This study has a different definition of "early retirement" than I do. I don't think the conclusions are applicable to FIRE people planning to retire in their thirties.
Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
21–30 of 292 posts
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#22How do you separate this from the surely non zero "cognitive decline causes early retirement" effect?
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#23Sitting around May Speed Up Cognitive Decline. Both my Grandfathers retired shortly before seventy. One sat down in his Chair and did not get up. He ignored his health, and passed within 10 years. The other is highly active in his community and church, still gardens, and travels constantly. He is in his mid 80s with no sign of slowing down. Barring a major health incident, he will live well into his 90s like his moth…
Which makes things dicey for retirees with post-polio syndrome. Moving keeps them mentally sharp, but also speeds post-polio progression (as I understand it).
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#24Sitting around May Speed Up Cognitive Decline. Both my Grandfathers retired shortly before seventy. One sat down in his Chair and did not get up. He ignored his health, and passed within 10 years. The other is highly active in his community and church, still gardens, and travels constantly. He is in his mid 80s with no sign of slowing down. Barring a major health incident, he will live well into his 90s like his moth…
I don't mean to be rude, but your living grandfather is very fortunate. Your deceased grandfather lived an average lifespan for someone in most of the developed world. I don't know ... a great deal about the background of your anecdote, but I would hesitate to overextrapolate, though. Sometimes the lack of activity is the manifestation of the underlying health issue that contributes to mortality.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#25My experience with both my parents was "I retired and I don't want to use my brain anymore," and they have both definitely experienced decline since retirement. Some of my friends' parents, however, have adopted more of a "I'm retired and now I can dedicate all my brainpower to these special projects I've always wanted to focus my energy on." These people have mostly declined not at all or very little. I think the answer is not to retire and go rot in a chair while taking 5 naps a day.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#26The title is kind of misleading, in fact the article's second last paragraph ends with: "Or alternatively, the kinds of things that matter and determine better health might simply be very different than the kinds of things that matter for better cognition among the elderly. Social engagement and connectedness may simply be the single most powerful factors for cognitive performance in old age."
Point being: if you're wealthy enough you should care more about spending time with the people you love than how long it takes you to solve a Sudoku.
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#27Pierre Bourdieu would put into perspective notions of work/activity and retirement.
So he was interviewing if I recall people from North Africa, some were used to western industrial work and others not. (He wasn’t aware of that yet)
He asked them if they worked lately. Those who knew industrial work said no or partly and the others yes.
He asked both groups what they did during their typical working days. The « no/partly group » described some kind of chain/industrial work and unemployment traps.
The « yes/busy group » said their typical work day was to discuss with their wives during 2 or 3 hours, attend and assist in solving the disagreements between neighbours in the public place of the village... etc.
Taking care of their animals and fields was not that time consuming or exhausting (subsistence agriculture).
In western societies, most of the socialisation and interactions happen in the work and professional environment. So what would one expect from « retirement »?
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#28I hope not, I recently retired. Still, the idea makes some sense. In retirement, I try to read one paper a day (usually deep learning, PGM, or classic AI), play at least one game of Go and Chess, do some recreational programming, and read. But, I don’t work into a state of brain-tiredness anymore like I used to at work.
Do you exercise? Lifting weights regularly (3 x week) and getting some light cardio every day will help keep your body strong into your retirement. It dramatically reduces the chance of getting injured by a fall and will keep you healthly and happy longer.
I'm approaching 40 and have built it into my schedule after several years of doing little and I'm feeling great for it. Next year we're moving to a large house and I'm going to have a small gym in the garage so I can keep to a tight schedule (I miss too much training because of having young kids).
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#29This is something I think about a lot. I plan to never stop doing mentally stimulating activities, even in my old age. The difference you can see in cognitive ability between the elderly is staggering. One particular instance that sticks in my mind was a video filmed in the UK where for some unrelated reason four older men and women were interviewed, with ages ranging between 80 and the low 100's. The mid 80 year old…
Most of this is just pure dumb luck combined with vascular health (to the extent that isn't dumb luck).
Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study
#30Not only early retirement but any kind of retirement that gets the retiree in a mode that they don't have to try anymore will result in cognitive decline. I am seeing this in my dad who has been retired for ten years now. Throughout his work life he was a sharp hard working banker. Now he uses his age and retirement as an excuse for not trying. Just yesterday he wanted me to order something for him from Amazon. I tol…
To be fair, working with text is really hard on mobile and has regressed a long way from general purpose computers like the pc. To undo you have to shake the fucking thing, and text selection takes time and patience (if you can select the text at all!)