I was a high school dropout and supermarket manager who went to community college at 45 for my AA in Gen Ed and then University for my BS in Computer Information Systems. Now I'm a full time web developer. It's really hard but I'm proud af
Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
41–50 of 164 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#42Yes.. 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…
On the flip side, at 40, money is much less of a factor. I’ve spent a small fortune on tinker projects as I’ve learned about hardware and EE. I’m slowly building up to it, but one future goal is to do an classic car EV conversion with my son in a few years. Then I’ll give it to him as his first car.
Also, I buy a ton of tools. Tools are also great to put on your Christmas list when there’s nothing else you want. I’m actually outgrowing a 3 car garage and will be building a workshop building soon.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#43I went back to school to finish my BS degree and graduated at 50. I took a few courses in areas that I had never studied, and I did notice that it took me longer to absorb the material. My retention is good.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#44After >30 years as a professional programmer I have finally learnt to touch type. While watching TV with the family I have been practising on typing programs. I am still fighting old habits and muscle memory, but I am getting there.
Me too! After nearly 40 years of programming, though not all of it professional. It was worth it just for the improvements to my posture.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#45Oh, yeah! I've made it a point to learn new stuff once in a while.
For my 40th birthday, I ran my first marathon. In my mid 40s I picked up woodworking. At 50, I learned to juggle. In the early 50s I started learning to play bluegrass banjo.
I'm looking forward to a lot more neat stuff. My aunt is in her mid-80s, she's a big participant in Olli classes. There's no end to learning.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osher_Lifelong_Learning_Instit...
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#46IMO, age is not a problem but time management and responsibilities as others have mentioned. If you are raising kids or taking care of elder people, but you have poor management skills, or maybe you're just overwhelmed... then it's going to be problem to learn something, even if it's improving your knowledge in something you're already familiar with.
It’s not just that, though it plays a large part.
As I get older, my brain is more aggressive about not wanting to learn cruft even though my conscious brain tells me it would be to my advantage.
And it does this by being less interested in so many things.
When I see yet another framework, or language, or tweak it’s just a shrug.
It has to be truly novel for me to get excited; but the upside is that some tweak that becomes important I’m usually able to understand instantly the implications.
When something is novel and easy to get started with, though, the old fire gets roaring again.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#47After >30 years as a professional programmer I have finally learnt to touch type. While watching TV with the family I have been practising on typing programs. I am still fighting old habits and muscle memory, but I am getting there.
Hey. I am 37 and a week ago started to learn to touch type the proper way. It's not a problem for me to touch type, but I did it with like 4-5 fingers and Never could get past 80 wpm. Now I started to learn the 10 fingers method and I feel like I miss almost every stroke. So frustrating
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#48Yes - standup comedy. I’m 47. Started 2 years ago, background mostly “nerdy” and not hyper social. Have done some paid gigs and performed for crowds of up to 150.
And at 38 learnt rock climbing ... got quite far with that until was stopped by an injury.
Also more recently podcasting and literally today Adobe Audition. More nerdy I guess but still.
Somehow programming is a good career to have a mindset of “I can learn anything”. The only thing I really think speaks against age when it comes to learning new things is your ability to dedicate time to get deep into whatever you’re learning. Job, family and other commitments etc can make it harder but if you’re willing to sacrifice some Netflix time many things become possible. Perhaps the other point is motivation - I won’t “waste time” learning things if I’m not highly motivated to do it - perhaps it’s an awareness that time is more precious now, I don’t know.
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#49[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?
#50This year, as a hobby, I got into 3D printing and CAD. I'm 40 yo