I learned Korean, re-learned French. Learned to build cigars and since I'm a later bloomer, learned about parenting (had my first child at 40).
Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
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Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#12I'm only 35 but I've continued to pick up skills throughout my life and I've only increased it as I got older:
- Started learning masonry and general handyman work in 2018 (33 years old)
- Started learning Spanish in 2019 (34 years old)
- Started learning piano in 2020 (35 years old)
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#13I'm 41 and I just bought a drum set. Although it's not totally new to me. I played a bit of piano and percussion when I was younger.
I think it's easier to learn something new now. I know how to learn better.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#14i got my masters in CS when i was 41 without prior dev experience if that counts
Did you have BS in CS or something else?
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#15Proofreading. I’m a native english speaker, but I’ve always stunk at grokking the underlying rules of English. But, as it turns out, I didn’t have to. I’ve read and spoken enough that the rules have just become justifications for what I know intuitively. It all just kinda makes sense now.
I could try and apply that to other parts of life (the whole “it became intuitive”), but I’m not too interested in going that deep right now.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#16I'm not in the age demographic you mention, but also not far from it. I've picked up chess, German, and golf. I've found the key to getting better (so far) is simply to practice as often as possible, even a little per day. I also think being older I have the confidence that I can learn skills, and I know that I only need to apply myself. In my younger years I used to think you either had the ability or not, but now I…
How've you found golf? I took it up at 30 and was hitting rounds of 200+ now I'm 33 I'm still happy if I break 120.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#17emacs. It is taking forever, but worth it.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#18Yes.. being post-40 doesn’t inherently lessen one’s ability to learn.
Rather, it’s the weight of management of things accumulated over the years that interrupt out natural curiosity and keep us from “learning”.
I believe you have to drop some things and not worry about forgetting them, in order to make time and space for new things.
I have, in the past year, become quite proficient at Docker Swarm, Flutter, Dart, and Go.
In the next year, I have my sights on Rust and a reintroduction to calculus.
Learning isn’t the issue. Finding the time to learn uninterrupted is the issue, IMHO.
I did give up Facebook completely, which has opened up a lot of time.
Cheers
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#19You should also ask if the people who learned new skills were raising kids. I have a feeling that is the dominant confounding variable.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#20learnt boxing (fighting) with 45