
The relationship between mindset and age (2017) - ricardomcgowan
http://aging.nautil.us/feature/218/why-you-cant-help-but-act-your-age
======
every
Old person here (+7 decades). Not much you can do about physical
deterioration. The only thing I've found you can easily carry into old age is
(assuming no senility or debilitating disease) coordination. One can be weak
and frail yet still somewhat graceful. As for the mind, it depends on when it
freezes in time. If you find yourself comparing everything current to the
"good old days", then you are probably lost. But as long as you have an
appetite for the new and unfamiliar (maybe something like ycombinator) then
there is possibly still hope...

~~~
ramraj07
Do you have advice on how to keep your intellect intact? Many of my older
relatives can barely think through things at 0.1x the speed they had even a
decade back, if they even bother to think through anything. However, very old
people in academia seemed to remain very sharp well into their seventies (some
study suggested that they can be as sharp as a regular 25 yo). I guess it's
good to keep reading and constantly use your brain, but any more solid
actionable habits might be useful!

~~~
travisjungroth
There might be a bit of circular reasoning about the old academics. People who
lose their cognition don’t stay academics. It’d be interesting to see a cohort
analysis starting at 40.

~~~
naasking
Exactly, survivorship bias.

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EGreg
I find that I am the same as I was 10-15 years ago. But society is boxing me
in with their expectations and with their carrots and sticks makes me act
differently.

I would run down the street as a kid. If I did that today, it would look
weird.

I would be sort of silly and upbeat about a lot of things. But as you get
older, people expect you to talk slower and more seriously.

And so on. A lot of it has to do with societal pressure and putting you in
boxes by sex and age.

Take this experiment... go somewhere no one knows your age and hang out with
much younger people for like a week. See how your health is afterwards.

[https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/age-is-
ju...](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/age-is-just-a-
number-believe-youre-younger-and-your-health-will-follow.html)

[https://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-langers-reversing-
agin...](https://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-langers-reversing-aging-
experiment-2015-4?amp)

~~~
thepete2
I wish it would be normal and accepted for adults to play too. You can still
be a responsible and grown-up person.

~~~
082349872349872
On the bright side, because it's not normal, it makes it easier to spot people
who might be worth hanging out with.

(like Dolphus Raymond with his paper bag, engaging with kids may provide
useful cover for playful adults)

"When Kelvin looked through the eyepiece he saw what was undoubtedly the
phenomenon that Maxwell had described, but in addition there was the image of
a little man dancing about ... Maxwell had achieved this by the addition of a
zoetrope ... Kelvin could not help asking: 'What is the little man there for?'
... 'Just for fun, Thomson.'"

[https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fourier-analysis/ode-
to...](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fourier-analysis/ode-to-a-
galvanometer/D6ADE60D396B492B0DB02288BCA6ADE1)

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
> psychologist Ellen Langer and her students carefully refurbished an old
> monastery in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to resemble a place that would
> have existed two decades earlier. They invited a group of elderly men in
> their late 70s and early 80s to spend a week with them and live as they did
> in 1959,

Has this study been replicated? Every time I see a psychology study that is
used as the basis of some popular article by some journalist, I get
suspicious.

~~~
smnrchrds
Of course not. Like all things too good to be true, it most probably is.
Criticism section on the researcher's Wikipedia page is worth a read:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Langer#Criticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Langer#Criticism)

~~~
jessriedel
Yikes:

> ...Langer claimed that when elderly men were temporarily placed in a setting
> that recreated their past, their health improved, and they even looked
> younger. However, this study was never published in a peer-reviewed journal.
> The only publication of this finding is in a chapter of a book edited by
> Langer.

> ... Langer described the week-long paid adult counterclockwise retreats she
> was creating in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, aimed towards replicating the
> effects found in her New Hampshire study. ... "Langer makes no apologies for
> the paid retreats, nor for what will be their steep price." Langer was
> defiant when pressed on the ethics of her study: "To my question of whether
> such a nakedly commercial venture will undermine her academic credibility,
> Langer rolled her eyes a bit. 'Look, I’m not 40 years old. I’ve paid my
> dues, and there’s nothing wrong with making this more widely available to
> people, since I deeply believe it.'"

I'm bummed Nautilus is publishing this. They ought to know better.

~~~
rramadass
And may i say that _you_ ought to know better than to point out one data point
in a good article to besmirch the entire informative article.

The article deals with complex and interesting topics and is well worth a
couple of reads.

~~~
adrianN
If you're not an expert in the field and manage to find a more or less obvious
mistake in the research of the article, how many more subtle errors an expert
would find?

~~~
rramadass
Actually that is not the case here. The article is an overview bringing
together ideas/opinions from various different researchers only one of whom
seems to have employed questionable practices.

------
squarefoot
I wanted to play drums since I was 10, but being the one who procrastinates
dreams for decades before doing something, I had to wait to reach above 50 to
finally start taking lessons. Playing already keyboards and bass of course was
beneficial, also I already knew how to do a few things on the drums, but
nothing serious. All I can say is it helped a lot, both the body and the mind.
I had to stop both practicing and taking lessons during the early pandemic
lockdown, and in a few weeks I clearly felt the negative effects.

------
archived22
[https://www.oldest.org/sports/marathon-
runners/](https://www.oldest.org/sports/marathon-runners/)

People had run/are running marathon in 70-90s age group. Hack, the oldest
runner was 102 year old.

May be we can do lot better, if we force ourselves to stay active.

Mark Twain said it better - "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't
mind, it doesn't matter.".

~~~
archived22
>> Still, the message seems to be that our chronological age really is just a
number. “If people think that because they are getting older they cannot do
things, or cut their social ties, or incorporate this negative view which
limits their life, that can be really detrimental,” says Terracciano.
“Fighting those negative attitudes, challenging yourself, keeping an open
mind, being engaged socially, can absolutely have a positive impact.”

And this.

------
headalgorithm
See discussion from 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14532581](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14532581)

------
nprateem
I decided a year or two ago that I have 2 ages, my chronological age and my
biological age. I feel and tell people the latter, which is about 5 years
younger than my chronological age. It really does make a difference and I feel
younger. I refuse to accept the stereotypes of my age group. When a birthday
comes round I decide whether to increase my biological age. I see this as no
different to people who choose their gender based on how they feel.

~~~
Hermel
It’s still lying.

~~~
feanaro
Is it important?

~~~
Broken_Hippo
Honestly, yes, to a point. If I hired someone and found out they lied about
their age, I couldn't trust them again. If I were dating someone, I'd leave.
I'd never trust the person again because the age is such a silly thing to lie
about and I'd assume that their speech is riddled with other untruths.

~~~
naasking
> If I hired someone and found out they lied about their age, I couldn't trust
> them again.

Why is their age relevant? You might as well ask about their favourite sexual
position. Would you expect them to answer that question honestly?

If not, why is does one dishonest answer warrant suspicion but the other does
not? Probably because the age question feels "innocuous", but clearly it's not
as it not only appears to measurably affects physiology, it definitely affects
career prospects in some fields.

~~~
feanaro
This is especially well put, thank you.

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SeanFerree
Awesome read!!

