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Dan, what do you mean by ^context shifting?^ Switching from one problem in a different area to another problem?

Yes. As you get older this gets much harder (I know from personal experience). I wish it were otherwise, but like grey hair and wrinkles it seems just part of getting older.

Well I'm 50 and my job involves a lot of context shifting, solving sudden problems with systems I'm not an expert at (thus requiring research) and generally being a jack of all trades.

I find it easier to do now than I did when I was younger, I see it as just what the job is. When I was younger, a sudden demand to do something different would have me annoyed because it was distracting me from what I really wanted to be working on.

Now I know that everything will be different in 5 or 10 years, so it doesn't really matter what I'm working on as it will be irrelevant soon.

Do you find it easier than when you were young or are you just more accepting now that it is required?

My job requires a ton of rapid context switching, but I do find it much harder now than when I was younger (I am 46).

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