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Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

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Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#331

Post by boringg »

mythhouse wrote: post #283
tablatom wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll second this. Based on my own experience (I'm 50) it's all about energy levels. When my energy is high, I can code like I did two decades ago. Probably better. I guess the difference is that in your twenties, energy is almost for free. As you get older, you've got to be smarter about it - all the usual things - diet, exercise, avoiding stress... Not that I'm good about those things - I do OK but not great. Someti…

I had unlimited energy till about 40 and then I hit some sort of cliff. This coincided with covid and being indoors using high velocity media like reddit/insta. I am not sure how much is age and how much is habits that caused this.

Recent studies suggest that counter to popular belief our metabolism doesn't change from age 20 to age 60. There are individual factors that can certainly account for your change of energy and I would certainly look for culprits.

I recently did a big change in myself - adjusted sleep, took specific supplements which I was suspect was deficient in and have found my energy to be much fuller. Do not ignore what your body is telling you.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#332

Post by travisporter »

NineStarPoint wrote: post #266
jb1991 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise is a source of enjoyment, why would you want to replace that?

I exercise on a strict schedule, both weight lifting and cardio. It is never enjoyable for me. I don’t get runners high, or pleasure from the exertion. I just make myself tired, sweaty, and add on temporary pain to my muscles. It’s worth it for the global effect on my energy levels and health. But it remains true that for some of us, exercise is never a source of enjoyment, and I understand why many people can’t get…

I’m in the same boat. Sports is a great shortcut but it’s just a lot of mental effort to meet new people.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#333

Post by vogt »

safety1st wrote: post #167
jb1991 wrote: post #17

I don't know you personally but I doubt cognitive decline has anything to do with this. As we age, we usually end up with more and more life responsibilities, beyond just the work we are doing. All of that is input to the brain and requires energy in response. The brain is not infinite. I often feel as you do, but then I have periods where I am as light and agile in my productivity as 20 years ago, maybe even more so…

Personal anecdote: I'm around the same age as OP and until recently also felt like my thinking was slowing down over the years. I went for many years without an exercise habit. About 5 months ago I started lifting weights. The transformation has defied all my expectations and the biggest unexpected benefit is that my mind has become sharper, faster and more focused. I essentially feel like I've reversed a decade's wo…

Would you mind sharing the routine, or a general outline of how you approached weight lifting from “zero” to “one”? I’m approaching 36 and haven’t lifted anything in 10+ years. But reading sentiments like this is motivating me to start again. I’m just scared honestly - my body has atrophied quite a bit the last 4-5 years at minimum

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#334

Post by bentcorner »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #208
FPGAhacker wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had a very successful similar experience with regard to excercise.

Hmm. Do you think we will ever get a pill to replace exercise?

Maybe not a pill but hopefully we'll have advanced technology that can determine what kind of exercise is exactly right for your goals, take into account any injuries, and tailor your Travelator(tm) Mech Suit to provide you enough resistance for maximum gain with lowest effort as you complete your daily outdoor cobalt mining gathering allotment for LikeCoins.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#335

Post by wusher »

Not sure if OP is a male or not but if you are get your testosterone levels checked and if they are low, fix them. I was going through the same thing at the same age. Your milage my vary but that was a complete game changer for all aspects of my life.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#336

Post by spoonfeeder006 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #246
dr_dshiv wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. Do you think we will ever get a pill to replace exercise?

Maybe centuries from now we will be able to replace movement with a bunch of chemicals that confuse the muscles to think they moved, but movement actually causes a lot of hydraulic pumping effects throughout the lymphatic system that physically diffuses toxins into a waste stream. It’s probably not possible from a physics standpoint to replace motion induced pumping/diffusion with pure chemistry.

You don't necessarily want to mimick muscles moving, but rather the brain effects of said muscles moving

Its possibly people may isolate the two effects separately

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#337

Post by brokencode »

What I’ve found is that some developers seem to thrive in chaos, whereas others expect things to make clear and logical sense. I’m one of the latter, and maybe you are too.

I’ve found that messy or illogical code slows me down more than other developers. On the upside though, I typically write cleaner code than other developers, because that’s the only type of code that I’m comfortable with.

Just accept that not everything is going to fit well with how your brain works and try to get through it.

I recommend taking detailed notes on everything you find and trying to map out on paper the call tree and different classes involved. This can help greatly when dealing with messy code.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#338

Post by agentultra »

denton-scratch wrote: post #259
Starwatcher2001 wrote: post #195

I know the feeling. I'm 62 and I can't go as long or as deep as I once could, but I've changed my strategy over the years and although I'm not as fast as I once was I'm still pretty productive. What I do is log virtually everything I'm doing in an editor window that I keep open all the time (one file per project/task). If I get disturbed by a call or a colleague, I can do a quick recap and get back to where I was. Li…

I got severely dinged for saying in a standup that I had forgotten what I was doing the previous day. So I bought an A4 hardback notebook, and started logging everything I did. I wish I had been doing that since I started in this business; it's a really good work habit.

I wish more programmers knew about this!

I keep a lot of journals. Bullet journals for my daily tasks/planning. Long form journals for deep subject matter: maths, graphics, algorithms, etc. Combined with my writing it's definitely been a useful way to see how I've evolved my thinking over time, etc.

Keep at it!

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#339

Post by pengaru »

A lot of people have B12 deficiency, and I'm sure there are others which affect cognition. Maybe have your GP run some relevant blood tests?

You can buy sublingual oral B12 supplements OTC if you want to just try and see. The methylcobalamin form seems to work better than cyano FWIW.

Re: Ask HN: I'm 40 and feel my mental ability declining. Programming seems harder.

#340

Post by anon7725 »

wusher wrote: post #335

Not sure if OP is a male or not but if you are get your testosterone levels checked and if they are low, fix them. I was going through the same thing at the same age. Your milage my vary but that was a complete game changer for all aspects of my life.

I would also suggest getting tested for vitamin B12 levels. I began taking B12 injections to compensate for a very low level and it has been a night and day improvement in my energy levels and ability to focus.
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