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Work peak and professional decline (2019)

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Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#101

Post by jhayward »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #69
caeril wrote: post #10

Related: The notion of "retirement" is a relatively recent invention. Traditionally, when you were too old to work the farm or prove the theorem (sorry, cognitive decline is a well-documented thing, and tends to coincide with physical decline[1]), you would "retire" to a productive life in less-demanding pursuits: caretaking of the grandkids, woodworking, food preservation, writing, etc. It's important to maintain ho…

If somebody is as illiterate as I am: metformin is type II diabetes medicine.

It has also been withdrawn from the market.

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#102

Post by kpwagner »

bsanr2 wrote: post #28

I'm 30 and it's already happened. The spoils of being tracked into low-paying, dead-end work.

I agree with previous reply. Don't squander your potential because you think it's too late. I empathize; I had a related experience. After failing at my first career out of school, I was broken an aimless. At 30 I found myself working in construction, which was not a good fit for me in many ways. Also, working 70 hrs/week for $30k/year didn't make me feel highly valued. Now, I'm 36 and a few years into a career as a software engineer. Strangely, I feel I have so much more opportunity ahead of me now than I did 10 years ago. Even more strange, I kind of feel bad for people my age who are professionally and financially successful, but don't have a clue what they want to do next: maybe they have golden handcuffs; maybe they just never really took the time to explore the world or know themselves. They have no businesses they want to start, no books they want to write. I'm sure some people look at me and see a loser, but that's true of everyone, so who gives a fuck?

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#103

Post by hattmall »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #79
rootusrootus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> low-efficiency vehicles Tangent: Are these actually low efficiency? Sure, 10 mpg (this is a more typical average, BTW, not 8 mpg) is terrible gas mileage ... for an average car. But a portable house that can drive down the interstate isn't just a car. Per pound, it doesn't seem that bad.

Why hasn't EV tech hit the RV world? How many batteries could one of those Greyhound bus size RV's, or smaller ones, hold? Maybe it has and I'm ignorant. I get that corporate shipping industries would benefit but a lot of delivery vans are the same platform as an RV. I think a Ford F350 is the size of those 25 ft uhaul rentals - about same size as a decent sized RV. RV's typically park somewhere for days, campgrounds…

Think about a Tesla's max range. Something like 500 miles. That might be something you run up against once or twice in a year with a normal car usage, but with a RV that's like every trip. If you could triple the range then you still need to probably quadruple the batteries for the size and dynamics of the RV, so that a 12x multiple for batteries. Assuming it's 1/2 the cost of a Tesla is the batteries then your looking at something like $250k just for the batteries.

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#104

Post by chrisseaton »

tomc1985 wrote: post #65
etrautmann wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I share your antipathy for low-efficiency vehicles, why is traveling around the national parks of the west a sad way to spend your retirement years?

Personally, RVs kind of miss the point of tooling around nature if one can wimp out and retreat to a house-on-wheels

What motivates someone to belittle people who aren't as hardcore about a hobby as them like this? What on earth do you care how someone else chooses to enjoy themselves?

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#105

Post by warble »

sinenomine wrote: post #88
readme wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

young people think they're invincible i'm only in my 30s and already started my retirement hobby (wordworking) i'll take this career as far as I can but you never know when the day will come that you've had enough and can't bare to go to work anymore -- it gets harder to just leave a job for another one if you don't like it when you're in your late 50s.

I'm in my late 20's and I notice my mental energy/sharpness being slightly lower compared to what they were at my peak age of 22. I learned to compensate for this with some behavioral and biochemical kludges, but the reality of the trend is pretty obvious at this point. Ten years ago I picked up biology and recently added to it ageing research as a hobby, we'll see if it pays off eventually. In mice ... many things o…

I'm 47, and I don't feel that much decline, and in some ways I'm far more productive. I'm more targeted, experience makes me wiser than I was in my 20s, and the only thing I really notice is that I definitely have 'on' days where I'm pretty good, and 'off' days (more often than not) where I'm just kind of cloudy in comparison.

I don't remember these on/off days in my 20s, however, I wasn't paying attention at all, instead chasing girls, adventure, and other unmentionables. So I may of had them then too, but I'm inclined to thing they're more pronounced now.

It's also HIGHLY exercise related. The more exercise I get, the better everything works. Someone else mentioned their grandfather says 'keep moving' - This is by FAR the best advice for growing older. Keep going.. when you're a kid you don't need to do that as much, your body is going anyway..

Later in life it takes determined effort.

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#106

Post by Johnny555 »

jquery wrote: post #35

Does the author struggle with any substance use or abuse? My mental acuity is sharper at 38 than it has ever been. But I gave up all alcohol and substance use a year ago.

He's in his mid 50's now. You may find that you're not the same person 20 years from now as you are now.

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#107

Post by sinenomine »

AlexTWithBeard wrote: post #69
caeril wrote: post #10

Related: The notion of "retirement" is a relatively recent invention. Traditionally, when you were too old to work the farm or prove the theorem (sorry, cognitive decline is a well-documented thing, and tends to coincide with physical decline[1]), you would "retire" to a productive life in less-demanding pursuits: caretaking of the grandkids, woodworking, food preservation, writing, etc. It's important to maintain ho…

If somebody is as illiterate as I am: metformin is type II diabetes medicine.

Another interesting fact about metformin: it increases lifespan and healthspan in lab mice [1]

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3192.pdf

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#108

Post by d0mine »

vkou wrote: post #66
AussieWog93 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the definition of "productivity" has changed a lot since the start of the industrial revolution too, from "helping your community make ends meet" to "engaging in soul-crushing, inhuman labour to make a group of wealthy investors who actively campaign against your well-being even wealthier".

Actually, prior to the start of the industrial revolution, the definition of "productivity" was "Spend nearly every waking hour tending the fields (that someone else owns) if you're a man, or spinning flax and wool (to make clothes for you and your family) if you're a woman." Not much left to better the community when keeping yourself fed and clothed[1] is two full-time jobs. And that's for free-persons, who aren't s…

Injustice is not the only way to get new technology even if you believe that there is a connection between the two notions.

Also, by your logic it wouldn't be enough for people to work around the clock just to survive in hunter-gathering times

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#109

Post by ideamotor »

rabidrat wrote: post #46
davidkhess wrote: post #11

I would not underestimate the value of experience. And the older you get, the more of it you have a chance to acquire. I think the mistake most people make is to deliberately slow down as you get older. Never slow down and you'll keep pulling ahead.

When I was younger, I would run as fast as I could straight into brick walls. I deliberately go more slowly now, and make wiser decisions. The value of my experience has taught me that it's better to move slow in the right direction than fast in the wrong direction.

I’m the same. However, I spend much more time deciding what to do and dealing with office politics. I’m not sure that the related time and effort is actually better spent than running into walls. You learn more from doing but perhaps both types of activity qualify. It’s hard to say as you perhaps weave towards a less technical and more managerial role.

Re: Work peak and professional decline (2019)

#110

Post by lmm »

rootusrootus wrote: post #36
etrautmann wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I share your antipathy for low-efficiency vehicles, why is traveling around the national parks of the west a sad way to spend your retirement years?

> low-efficiency vehicles Tangent: Are these actually low efficiency? Sure, 10 mpg (this is a more typical average, BTW, not 8 mpg) is terrible gas mileage ... for an average car. But a portable house that can drive down the interstate isn't just a car. Per pound, it doesn't seem that bad.

> Per pound, it doesn't seem that bad.

That's circular reasoning; carrying zillions of kilos around with you is the part that's inefficient.

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