Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

studyfinds.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 292 posts

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#171

Post by maroonblazer »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #60
monster_group wrote: post #9

Not 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…

I guess this is why you should work less hard and do more to cultivate hobbies. I can’t imagine retiring and doing nothing. So many projects.

I had the same reaction but then wondered whether the thing that makes work 'work' might help stave off cognitive decline. I.e. At least a few times a week I don't feel like working but, because my livelihood depends on it, I have no choice but to force myself to. On the contrary, if I don't happen to feel like engaging in any one of my numerous hobbies it's easy for me to veg out instead and thus risk cognitive decline.

Perhaps there's some threshold of 'vegging' that isn't obtained if one has enough hobbies.

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#172

Post by kamaal »

My grandfather and father-in-law have both got dementia in 2 years after their retirement. My Father even got heart disease after retirement.

I have long believed not working or not being active both physically and mentally is harmful to one's health.

Keep yourself occupied in some way or the other. Human mind and body needs some engagement to work well. Too much of rest is as harmful as fatigue.

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#173

Post by alex-mohr »

maroonblazer wrote: post #171
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is why you should work less hard and do more to cultivate hobbies. I can’t imagine retiring and doing nothing. So many projects.

I had the same reaction but then wondered whether the thing that makes work 'work' might help stave off cognitive decline. I.e. At least a few times a week I don't feel like working but, because my livelihood depends on it, I have no choice but to force myself to. On the contrary, if I don't happen to feel like engaging in any one of my numerous hobbies it's easy for me to veg out instead and thus risk cognitive decl…

Choose. What you happen to be feeling at the moment can control you, or not. See e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=discipline+is+freedom

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#174

Post by strken »

um_ya wrote: post #158
Daynil wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how so many people can anchor their lives to work. If you do that, when you retire, you've lost your meaning of life. I have a list of things a mile long that I just can't get to because 40 hours a week is already spoken for. Early retirement speeds cognitive decline? Maybe if you sit on the beach and/or watch TV all day long, but that sounds kind of miserable if done for more than a few weeks.

Some of us see work as the meaning of life. Traveling and doing things just for the experience alone seems kind of meaningless. Great for vacation, but not great for long term goals. Perhaps if you're at a dead end job, then work might feel meaningless, I agree.

I think that the gp is using "work" to mean one specific job or at least only the work one does in their career, while you're using it to mean all work.

I don't think they're mutually exclusive views. I think it's possible to do meaningful and impactful work outside of your job and career, like volunteering or running a side business as a passion project or even creating artwork, and I can imagine that kind of work being the kind of thing you never retire from.

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#176

Post by Dumblydorr »

monster_group wrote: post #9

Not 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…

That is probably mostly just age, you can't say that an elderly person that retired is declining due to no job when they'd decline due to age 80% as much. There is obviously a sweet spot here, retire in the the 50s and play music all day is my goal.

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#177

Post by sloopy543 »

I would like to think I might experience a cognitive acceleration when I retire. No more bullshit occupying my mind. No need to meditate to stop thinking about such-and-such shitty interaction at work. Hoping to get my mind back so I can do things more creative than whatever is in the JIRA.

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#178

Post by IAmGraydon »

dexwiz wrote: post #14

Sitting 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…

> Barring a major health incident, he will live well into his 90s like his mother, and may pass 100.

You just stated that he’s genetically predisposed, but you believe lifestyle choices are the main driver here?

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#179

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

neogodless wrote: post #17

It'd be interesting to better understand the control for this research. The main premise here is that "those receiving pension benefits" (i.e. no longer working) have faster cognitive decline. But is there a correlation between the kind of work you did and receiving a pension? Perhaps the word "pension" means something a bit different here, but in U.S. English, we usually use it to mean a company-sponsored retirement…

Yes, it seems far more likely to me that those who start experiencing cognitive decline make the choice to take their pension benefits earlier. I'm really surprised to see so many people here commenting as if this study demonstrates anything.

Re: Early Retirement May Speed Up Cognitive Decline: Study

#180

Post by r00fus »

geoelectric wrote: post #124
jedberg wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead it's three-finger directional swipes and pinches and long-touching a caret to pick it up and whatnot. Wait hold up. I've been on iOS13 for months now and been super frustrated with what I thought was a buggy copy/paste. Are you telling me I was just doing it wrong?!

https://www.imore.com/how-use-text-editing-gestures-iphone-i... Afraid so, but there you go. Only reason I found out earlier is I lucked across it in my news feed so don't feel too bad. It's pretty obnoxious they didn't have a transition period where both sets of gestures worked.

Most of the changes seem intuitive but the cut/copy/paste do not.

I’ll have to give it a shot once I upgrade.

Post reply on HN