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Comment by elorant | Hacker News Reader

On the contrary, I’m on my early forties and my physical condition is way better than it was twenty years ago. I exercise a lot, eat much healthier food because now I know whilst on my twenties I’d eat any crap that came my way, I have a steady sleeping pattern trying to wake up early each morning so I can make the most of the day and generally speaking I feel like I have at least another twenty energetic years ahead of me.

As for tolerance the funny thing is that while younger I would confront head on anyone that I’d think was bullshitting me. Nowadays I just ignore them. I’ve learned to not give a fuck.

The only thing I find harder as I grow up is to fall in love. It’s not that it doesn’t happen, it just doesn’t happen with the frequency and the easiness it did twenty years ago. But then again that might be a good thing, not to fall in love with every gorgeous woman that crosses your path.

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On the contrary, I’m on my early forties and my physical condition is way better than it was twenty years ago.

It's a crap shoot. I got hit by metabolic syndrome -- extreme hypertension and type II diabetes. I exercise, I weigh less and am in better shape than I was 20 years ago, but I'm still on a cardiology professor's frequent-flyer list and gobbling meds by the double-handful. Meanwhile, my wife is a four year cancer survivor (another six months to the all-clear, we hope).

The probability of running into a life-threatening or terminal medical condition approaches unity as we age towards the upper limit of human life expectancy (around 114 years, currently). By the time you hit your forties you probably know people who had an unlucky aggressive early-onset cancer; by the time you hit your fifties you can add heart attacks and strokes to that, and less-well-known problems as well. It's all downhill from here, and unfortunately it's not the kind of ride most people enjoy.

Isn't that hereditary? Isn't it possible to look at relatives and parents and guess own future?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longevity#Genetics

Genetics Twin studies have estimated that approximately 20-30% the variation in human lifespan can be related to genetics, with the rest due to individual behaviors and environmental factors which can be modified.

[Hjelmborg, J.; Skytthe, Axel; Vaupel, James W.; McGue, Matt; Koskenvuo, Markku; Kaprio, Jaakko; Pedersen, Nancy L.; Christensen, Kaare et al. (2006). "Genetic influence on human lifespan and longevity". Human Genetics 119 (3): 312–321. doi:10.1007/s00439-006-0144-y.]

>The only thing I find harder as I grow up is to fall in love. It’s not that it doesn’t happen, it just doesn’t happen with the frequency and the easiness it did twenty years ago. But then again that might be a good thing, not to fall in love with every gorgeous woman that crosses your path.

I don't need to be even near your age to know for sure that love is a term used for something different than this. Much deeper, much longer-lasting and resilient. If you keep falling in love literally every time hot chick passes along, you've never fell in love. I know both states well enough, and they are worlds apart

There's love and falling in love. The latter is really just infatuation, but it can be hard to tell the difference early on in a relationship.

Love is bonding. But to get there you first have to fall in love. And as you grow older, at least in my case, you don't get so easily enthusiastic when you meet an interesting woman. You've learn to keep your hopes down in case the whole thing goes south. It's a defensive mechanism to keep you from feeling heart-broken every so often.

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