Question for those above 30: Does it become harder to learn new skills?

[Davino]

@Michael569 It does help. I lack the first hand experience on aging and your perspective is very much valued. I liked the hormonal switch analogy.

[Space]

@Davino No it doesn't become harder to learn new skills.

If anything its easier because I have a much deeper understanding of 'how' to learn, which has only come through years of life experience. 

Learning a new skill is also about your environment and life setup as much as it is about brain plasticity. 

As I've gotten older, my life setup is much more conducive towards long periods of focus and solitude - both of which are helpful if not essential when learning new skills. 

The motivational aspect of learning a new skill is also important. If I'm learning a new skill its because I really want to, so I'm very motivated to endure the long periods of pain and discomfort that inevitably come with it. When I was younger, you tend to just start new things fairly randomly without much risk, but the downside is you quit when it gets tough. You don't find yourself in those situations when you're older.

[Davino]

14 hours ago, Space said:

As I've gotten older, my life setup is much more conducive towards long periods of focus and solitude - both of which are helpful if not essential when learning new skills. 

Totally agree

[Leo Gura]

14 hours ago, Space said:

As I've gotten older, my life setup is much more conducive towards long periods of focus and solitude - both of which are helpful if not essential when learning new skills. 

Assuming you don't start a family.

[Kksd74628]

@Leo Gura

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Assuming you don't start a family.

I would say that even in this it all just is matter of structuring things well. That is the best side of life that by figuring bunch of things out and using proper automation and delegation magic is possible. If family is on your way you shouldn't even had it in the first place and fucked up the structure completely.

You create your own kingdom not jail. Think about it.

[Carl-Richard]

What mostly happens at around 30 is that you'll have so many responsibilities that you won't have time to do many things, so you won't have much time to learn new things and thus you won't become as good at them.

But if you dedicate all your time to something, there is no reason why you can't learn to do it well. It's just an advantage to start early because you learn a bit faster and you generally have more time (both spare time and lifetime).

Besides, we have to be specific about what we're talking about. In terms of years onwards spent at high neural plasticity, starting at 25 vs. 30 is arguably not a very big difference, at least not in any fatal "you're doomed if you don't" way. But something like 5 vs. 30, that's of course a bigger difference. And also, that's 25 years of head start in terms of pure work time.

Now, what is a little talked about but almost invaluable factor for learning is mentorship. The benefits of being older is that you have more knowledge and autonomy to get access to things like mentors and other strong factors for learning. Definitely use what you can to your advantage.

Edited Sunday at 05:07 PM by Carl-Richard

[Davino]

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Now, what is a little talked about but almost invaluable factor for learning is mentorship. The benefits of being older is that you have more knowledge and autonomy to get access to things like mentors and other strong factors for learning. Definitely use what you can to your advantage.

Leveraging money for learning, that is an asset that may not be available when your younger. It does make a lot of difference

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I might add another insight: I seem to have become excellent at failing (or bouncing back) the further into existence I get.

Failure just isn't an issue, as I know I will find the cause of error & correct it.

This is why insight and inner work is so integral to the aging process.

You become sovereign to yourself.

Confident you can tackle anything.

On a side note, I cannot speak for women who have given birth.

This may seem controversial: I have witnessed hormonal changes in women who have children that affect their cognitive abilities. Integrating existential insights into themselves seems harder, probably because it is not conducive to raising a family. I believe (through my own observations, large family of women who have multiple children) the process of birth & pregnancy changes the matter within the brain. I hope this is researched more in the future. No judgement of course, I personally have never felt any compulsions to have children.

But again, my experience, my experience.