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Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

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Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#101

Post by every »

offtop5 wrote: post #85
every wrote: post #43

I'm a mere youngster at 71. I had to wait until retirement before I could spend the time I wanted on things that interested me. Currently that is the Unix Toolkit. There should be enough there to keep me busy for a while...

Are you at all disappointed in the lack of discipline in younger programmers. I know when JavaScript first started to become a server-side language, I worked with a slightly older programmer, he was maybe 40 in 2014, and he hated it. I tend to stick with higher level easier languages for the most part ( JS, Python, C#)

I make no pretense of being a programmer, outside of the occasional bash, awk or sed script. I usually beg off by saying I'm a tool user, not a tool maker...

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#102

Post by majkinetor »

vuciv1 wrote: post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

I bet Russians and their scientists do know a lot about it. You usually wont find their thing on Internet tho.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#103

Post by majkinetor »

martamorena2 wrote: post #19
vuciv1 wrote: post #4

Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted, someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young forever. I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked better :)

There very likely is zero correlation. But potentially, people who take cold showers represent a biased subset of the population, which is statistically more inclined to look young. This applies to pretty much EVERYTHING that is not done via high quality double-blind studies published in reputable, peer-reviewed journals. Point being: Repeating single actions of successful people statistically does not make you succe…

Here are some studies I collected years ago:

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5025014/

- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24921042/

- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/mnt/releases/239174#1

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2370378/pdf/can...

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#104

Post by wombatmobile »

gchamonlive wrote: post #67

I watch these types of videos and I can't help but wonder if we transcended the need for elderly advice or we just grown as a youth centric society. It could also be a matter of language, and words can't convey the elders experiences as effectively as it could in simples times, where symbols did not need to account for vastly different experiences. So when someone says "I don't regret working hard" in the context of…

Yes, elders thoughts are valuable, but only if they come out in the interview. A more useful context than not being dead might come from questions with the potential to elevate, like these from David Brooks [1]:

What crossroads are you at? What commitments have you made that you no longer believe in? Who do you feel most grateful to have in your life? What problem did you use to have but now have licked? In what ways are you sliding backward? What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/opinion/nine-nonobvious-w...

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#105

Post by every »

kevinmannix wrote: post #72
every wrote: post #43

I'm a mere youngster at 71. I had to wait until retirement before I could spend the time I wanted on things that interested me. Currently that is the Unix Toolkit. There should be enough there to keep me busy for a while...

unrelated: I love your website design!

Oh, thank you. But most of the credit must go to tree v1.8.0 and markdown. I was simply lazy enough not to want to code html...

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#106

Post by brigandish »

kecupochren wrote: post #47
dzink wrote: post #29

You can trial the cold shower experience by just a washing your face with cold water after you wake up every morning. Growing up in Bulgaria that was a standard practice for my whole family. It does wonders for the skin and is very refreshing.

Or you can start by turning on the cold water for couple of seconds at the end of your regular shower. Holding your breath helps. Gradually you will be able to stay in the cold water for longer and longer and it won't hurt. A neat side effect to this is that you won't feel cold when you get out.

That’s known as the Scottish Shower, perhaps because Scotland is all too often wet and cold, or perhaps as a reminder not to relax in indulgent things as there’ll soon be something along to spoil the fun!

On a more serious note, I take cold or Scottish showers all year except for the coldest part (because Japanese houses have the worst insulation you’ll come across so you’ll go from cold to cold) and it does make me feel better. Even just enduring the pain of the cold seems to bring benefits.

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#107

Post by every »

dorchadas wrote: post #79
sn41 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great for you!! I am considerably younger, but I am currently learning Forth, essentially based on the same principle. However, I don't have a lifetime of earnings to provide for my family yet, so I have to pretend to care about boring things for at least 25 years more.

Something like this is my dream goal. I'd love to become financially independent so that I can then pursue what I want (namely, endless study in a variety of subjects) without worrying about financial pressures from the outside. Sadly, I've got close to 30 years still to wait, then to hope my retirement pays enough that I can move to a nice college town with a good library and use it and maybe audit courses/do many m…

Sounds like a nice goal. But be advised, time and circumstance may intervene. Adaptability is a virtue...

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#108

Post by every »

sn41 wrote: post #73
every wrote: post #43

I'm a mere youngster at 71. I had to wait until retirement before I could spend the time I wanted on things that interested me. Currently that is the Unix Toolkit. There should be enough there to keep me busy for a while...

Great for you!! I am considerably younger, but I am currently learning Forth, essentially based on the same principle. However, I don't have a lifetime of earnings to provide for my family yet, so I have to pretend to care about boring things for at least 25 years more.

You may discover that some of the most interesting stuff comes from the seemingly boring stuff...

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#109

Post by iso8859-1 »

submeta wrote: post #3

Truly inspiring. I am in my late forties, and I was wondering if I have enough time to learn Haskell, now I have no reason not to.

The Berlin FP group on Meetup just finished the haskellbook.com , you're just in time to join in with the next reading group!

Re: Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student [video]

#110

Post by gchamonlive »

wombatmobile wrote: post #104
gchamonlive wrote: post #67

I watch these types of videos and I can't help but wonder if we transcended the need for elderly advice or we just grown as a youth centric society. It could also be a matter of language, and words can't convey the elders experiences as effectively as it could in simples times, where symbols did not need to account for vastly different experiences. So when someone says "I don't regret working hard" in the context of…

Yes, elders thoughts are valuable, but only if they come out in the interview. A more useful context than not being dead might come from questions with the potential to elevate, like these from David Brooks [1]: What crossroads are you at? What commitments have you made that you no longer believe in? Who do you feel most grateful to have in your life? What problem did you use to have but now have licked? In what ways…

Before asking those questions I think we still need more context, because you can't assume mutual understanding of what the symbols in the answers might mean from the elders and the listeners perspectives.

My central hypothesis here is that globalization and the high longevity we can achieve nowadays takes a toll on the quality of the understating of what's being told by the elders. Where once not too long ago we mainly heard from elders directly available, in the village, city or country, now we have access to more people but we don't share similar cultural backgrounds as before. And to overcome this, a little immersion in the cultural context of that elder is necessary even before posing these questions.

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