
A Hacker's Guide to Getting Old - szczys
http://hackaday.com/2016/06/22/a-hackers-guide-to-getting-old/
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amelius
Probably the best thing to do right now is to do genotyping, for example at
23andme, and determine the nutrition you need to grow old in a healthy way.
See e.g. [1].

Also probably a good idea is to store mesenchymal stem cells in a bank, which
could turn out to be useful later in life [2]

[1] [https://www.nutrahacker.com/](https://www.nutrahacker.com/)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11829994](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11829994)

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criddell
That sounds pretty cool. Can you give me an example of the things a site like
nutrahacker can tell me?

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amelius
I'm not an expert. But basically what 23andme tells you are what parts of your
DNA deviate from the reference genome. If you have certain mutations in
certain genes, then those genes (which correspond to enzymes) have a defect:
the corresponding enzymes may not work as expected. For example, if 23andme
tells you that you have a defect in a gene called BCMO1 (which encodes an
enzyme that converts carotenes into retinol), then Nutrahacker could tell you
that you might benefit from taking a retinol supplement. (The general case is
more complicated than described here, as most genes may not be hacked around
by adding nutrition directly, so a more careful approach is needed).

There is a lot of focus on the link between mental disorders and nutrition.
For example, people with depression, anxiety, and autism have been helped by
addressing their nutritional needs. In some cases, these disorders may be
"late-onset disorders", they appear later in life. So even if you have no
disorder right now, it might still be a good idea to optimize your diet.

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copperx
I wonder whether reading a ton helps; I have the suspicion that it does. Alan
Kay sounds extremely sharp for his age, as does Don Knuth, and pretty much
most intellectuals.

But I still would want to know what's the best activity to keep the mind
sharp. Chess grandmasters show a decline at about 35 if I recall correctly. I
suspect that programming ability will also show a steep decline, but I wonder
how big.

I'll keep an eye on Torvalds and Carmack because I don't think they'll give up
programming as they get older.

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chrisbennet
_" I suspect that programming ability will also show a steep decline, but I
wonder how big."_

I'm only 36 [1]. I wonder about the above. I could crank out more code when I
was younger but I couldn't crank out as many _solutions_ as I do now.

[1] in hexadecimal ;-)

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jacobsenscott
That's exactly it. An experienced programmer finishes tasks without writing a
crap ton of code. A new grad cranks out zillions of lines, tons of technical
debt, and gets very little done.

Line count is inversely proportional to ability, to a certain limit.

There is no steep decline in programming ability after 35, or 40, or 50.

There is often a steep decline in interest. There are many interesting things
to do in the world, and people naturally gravitate to new things after doing
one thing for 10, 20, or 30 years.

As long as the interest is there your programming ability can improve pretty
much indefinitely.

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dleslie
Relevant Research:

[http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/03/06/095679761456...](http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/03/06/0956797614567339.abstract)

Edit: Free Link:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441622/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441622/)

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brlewis
tl;dr version:

For seeing tiny electronic parts despite nearsightedness, get a desktop or
head-mounted magnifier.

For soldering despite hand tremors, support your forearms, work on upper body
strength, and get a fume extractor to maintain high oxygen levels.

For general cognitive skills, do mental exercise.

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throwanem
I can't overstate the value of a desk-mounted magnifier. Even just one hacked
together from an old lamp arm and some Radio Shack leftovers makes a night-
and-day difference in the ease of soldering work.

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kyberias
This was not a guide. It was more like a bunch of notes.

~~~
blahshaw
Agreed. There isn't much actionable advice here.

