In my 50s I hope to learn a musical instrument, although that's a couple years away so who knows what's in store then.
Learning something new keeps us young and humble, and engaged. It also connects us with people outside our current bubble. People talk about our minds becoming less elastic as we age, but that's offset by practice at learning new things. I do think it's good to learn things with some element of risk from time to time; it's part of what keeps us sharp, and forces us to evaluate our own competency level.
What are you interested in learning?
How did you decide what you wanted to do at each juncture?
That led me to move to Alaska a few years later, which led to mountain rescue work. Teaching led to writing. Living in a coastal fishing town led to boating. Each adventure leads to the next. :)
I wouldn't want to live forever, but I'd happily live a thousand years and spend ten years on a hundred different things.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_Across_America
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jenkins_(travel_author...
I never hear anyone say "Who was captain?" or "Who was steering?" "Captain" seems to imply a title, and "steering" sounds like you just took the wheel for a moment.
That may be different for people who spend a lot of time on commercial boats. When I've been in formal settings, say on a police boat while doing search and rescue work, we will talk about the person who is filling the role of captain. But we still say that person is "driving" the boat.
Well, now I have multiple tons of milling tooling and so obviously I need a 3-ton milling machine. Looking at an older CNC mill.
So that’s one skill. Another is automotive repair. My skill level is high enough to do engine replacement. Just bought a car lift today to make everything easier. This does intersect with other skills - I use oscilloscope for automotive troubleshooting, which is not far from software engineering and electronics. This led me to almost opening a mobile A/C repair business. I acquired most of the equipment I needed and got certified for federal licenses. This got delayed because of the machine shop company that fell into my lap. That’s just a much bigger opportunity.
I can credit YouTube for introducing me to many interesting skills and hobbies.
Competitive dancing. I have been a good dancer since 16 years of age, but then I studied with world championship teams. At that point, the dance is a tightly choreographed athletic activity. I was going to start competing this year, but that will have to wait a little. There are various age categories, so I can compete on equal terms with other similar couples.
Relearning math. I am not terrible at it, but I am attempting to create a curriculum that does not focus on rote memorization.
Great luck with the business venture.
I think This Old Tony and Rainfall Projects were my gateway drugs
My partner and I have kids (7 and 4), with no family nearby to "hand over" the kids to. We're pretty much on our own. Somehow, with less time we accomplish more.
I suppose it's not a drastic change from my day-to-day (like learning a musical instrument, a dance, or a language), but it's new to me, and something I want to do more of in the coming years.
The ways I incorporate it into family time are: designing pen&paper games and playing them with the kids; designing levels/characters, and drawing/doodling with the kids; coming up with narratives/stories and telling them to the kids.
I'm a gamer. When my wife and I first got together, we played a lot of games together (Resident Evil on the sofa, Scrabble/Carcassonne at the pub). She works in TV and one of her first jobs was with Gamepad [1] (we're still good friends with Violet and family). So, the games runs deep, and I would love to spend more of my time making them.
Now I am 41, I am still new to the new career and continuously out of my comfort zone. But once I am more used to the pace and life of a programmer, I will probably want to learn something else. No idea what yet, but I will.
- Unicycle, difficult to get started but well worth pushing through just for the moment when you're upright and somewhat stable. A colleague taught me in the office.
- Surfing, mid-thirties for this one. Learnt through friends, really pushes you as there's a lot to contend with and understand early on. Wind, tides, swell, fitness, skill, reading the waves, kit and more. 99% sitting around cold or underwater 1% actually on a wave for me.
- Walking, super accessible.
And at 38 learnt rock climbing ... got quite far with that until was stopped by an injury.
Also more recently podcasting and literally today Adobe Audition. More nerdy I guess but still.
Somehow programming is a good career to have a mindset of “I can learn anything”. The only thing I really think speaks against age when it comes to learning new things is your ability to dedicate time to get deep into whatever you’re learning. Job, family and other commitments etc can make it harder but if you’re willing to sacrifice some Netflix time many things become possible. Perhaps the other point is motivation - I won’t “waste time” learning things if I’m not highly motivated to do it - perhaps it’s an awareness that time is more precious now, I don’t know.
Did you follow any structure to learn comedy? Or are you a natural?
The pattern I’ve seen when people start standup seems to go like this ...
Extroverts who are comfortable in front of people tend to try to “wing it” and don’t prepare material.
Introverts (like me) tend to work harder on the material and actually having good jokes. This can be advantageous but you have to put the work in preparing. If you’ve ever done a talk at a conference or otherwise, that probably helps.
What’s interesting about comedy is it seems to exploit a “bug” in the way the human brain works. The most basic form of a standup joke is basically; 1. Create tension for the audience, 2. Release the tension with surprise
... there’s plenty of material online explaining this and I even read somewhere that there are only something like 21 possible joke structures to make a crowd laugh.
What I love about comedy is it’s a craft, much like programming. The goal is to make a room full of people laugh at the same time but there are so many variables that can influence that, there is no single solution to the problem... hence it’s a craft.
- Started learning masonry and general handyman work in 2018 (33 years old)
- Started learning Spanish in 2019 (34 years old)
- Started learning piano in 2020 (35 years old)
First, I spent the first few months studying grammar rules and learning words but didn’t do much speaking because I felt I didn’t have a good “baseline”
Second, once I realized speaking was important, I went all in... did 1 hour a day voice calls for 2 months. This ended up being worthless because I didn’t really recall mistakes I made.
So what I realized that the best approach was hybrid... I should be doing some academic studying AND some speaking. But the biggest change I made was actually writing down the mistakes I made during my video calls with the native speaker and studying those mistakes in my flashcards.
I've been learning mandarin for a couple of months and I do something similar.
My girlfriend can speak it so what I do is speak mandarin during our suppertime every day and I have google translate beside me. If there are words I can't say and want to remember later, I star the translation and add it to an Anki deck later on.
I haven't really figured out a lightway way to capture problems with forming whole sentences, though. It kind of breaks the flow the conversation too much if I'm writing down whole sentences.
Do you capture only problems with remembering specific words or also problems with forming whole sentences?
I started learning at PumpingStation One, Chicago's Makerspace, it turned out I really like turning metal into finished pieces and piles of chips. My nickname was "Metal Mike", I became the area host, and when a member's Dad needed someone to make gears, no experience necessary, I jumped at it, at age 53. If you bought a Marvel 18" bandsaw between 2016 and the spring, odds are I made the lower bandwheel that drives the blade.
I learned that making things with a precision of about the thickness of a human hair is relatively easy, in quantity. I know more about gears and gearing than I ever thought I could know... and that was only scratching the surface in 5 years. I will try hard not to assume something is easy in the future.
Since then, I'm trying to catch up, I want to go back into Programming, which I did before being a system admin for 15 years... my last major code was in Turbo Pascal for DOS. I did little side gigs, learning GIT, Python, a bit of C++/Arduino, MySQL, etc.
I've been reading everything I can, subscribed to /r/pascal, /r/programming and /r/programminglanguage on reddit where I answer a few and mostly read questions.
Hopefully, I'll be able to start earning a living in coding again soon.
[Edit] To answer a downstream question, we have a child, you have less free time, but more inspiration.
I also didn't want to lose the muscle I built which made me segue into body weight training and calisthenics. Previously I had never been interested in any of that but for the moment it is something I'm really enjoying and I'm making good progress with. I think I will stick to it in addition to the weight training even when gyms are opening up again.
Convict Conditioning book. There is also an app on Android call Convict Conditioning which I use to track progress.
calimove.com Paid classes but they really teach you good form
if you want to be a minimalist then a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells would be enough. You don't need much
I picked up the rudiments of Sanskrit enough to be able to understand lectures in the language and read straightforward prose. I also gained a basic understanding of Indic philosophy, but I suppose that is not a skill. Now my aim is to deepen these skills to more advanced levels.
Currently I am also trying to learn Physics and Mathematics at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. It's taking forever because I keep getting distracted with life generally. But my aim is nothing less than gaining a solid grasp of our current modern understanding of how the universe works. I hope to get somewhere respectable by the time I am 45.
It is a Skill, just not a physical one. Study of Indian Philosophy is a lifelong endeavour where you have to continually challenge yourself with different concepts, interpretations and models of the world.
PS: You might want to get the multi-volume A History of Indian Philosophy by Surendranath Dasgupta for reference.
Now my aim is to study these topics in Sanskrit with a traditional scholar. Currently trying to see how to make this work.
>Now my aim is to study these topics in Sanskrit with a traditional scholar. Currently trying to see how to make this work.
Contact BHU at https://www.bhu.ac.in/ and ask for advice on how to go about it. It is easier now since there are lots more focus and avenues for remote study/work.
As I get older, my brain is more aggressive about not wanting to learn cruft even though my conscious brain tells me it would be to my advantage.
And it does this by being less interested in so many things.
When I see yet another framework, or language, or tweak it’s just a shrug.
It has to be truly novel for me to get excited; but the upside is that some tweak that becomes important I’m usually able to understand instantly the implications.
When something is novel and easy to get started with, though, the old fire gets roaring again.
I picked up a cheap hybrid bike (about $250) from Dicks Sporting Goods and just started putzing around the backyard until I felt confident enough to go out on asphalt. Took a week or two, then I was out cruising the neighborhood.
I don't consider myself good at all, but now I know how to do it.
Some classes I’ve taken in recent years:
- Full (semester/quarter long) courses: story telling, creative writing, Alexander technique, languages (8 quarters and still ongoing), a history of Western civilization (a 3 quarter sequence)
- Once off classes: archery, calligraphy, flash fiction writing, editing, language classes on iTalki, history seminars, harmony singing
I also want to say that this is one of the main advantages of living in a big city [0] with major universities (in my case UChicago [1] and Northwestern) and specialty schools [2].
When I lived in a smaller city I couldn’t have taken a fraction of the course I’d listed above. Different strokes for different folks but for me, the creative energy of a big city calls to me.
(just for context, I have a full time job but no kids. I never felt that taking courses outside of work was ever too stressful — just needed a bit of time management)
[0] Chicago’s Park District offers a slew of inexpensive (subsidized) courses to the public.
https://apm.activecommunities.com/chicagoparkdistrict/Activi...
[1] The Graham School has a catalogue of humanities classes open to the public.
[2] Second City Chicago has programs open to the public.
Studying for the license felt like I was back in university. So I treated it as a goal, studying ground materials consistently every day while blocking out 2 lessons every week. It was effectively a job on top of the work I was already doing.
Most shocking was how much longer it took me to absorb the materials vs. studying equivalently complicated topics 25 years ago. Not to understand what they were, but to be able to have instant recall with precision.
It was a great opportunity to teach them some things and learn others too. Especially unusual things like washing houses (I do not know the English word for that, these are places people were coming to wash their clothes, usually a water source and stone washing places, under a roof). Their history was surprisingly interesting.
To be honest I did those kinda things already, except for the singing, but having a small child those are the kinda things he likes at the moment. No doubt his tastes will change over time, but I'm gonna try to join in with his interests at least until such time as he doesnt' want his "uncool" dad doing so.
Besides the skills to keep them alive, teach them to walk, talk, behave, read, get dressed, keep clean, be safe, etc. There are: picking the right neighbourhood for young families, finding the appropriate schools, dealing with friends of your kids and their parents, planning interesting holidays, adhering to all the mandatory festivities at the corresponding days.
If that does not count as leaning new skills, I do not know what does.
Had to be Win and Mac (some plaftform freedom) due to availability of highend VSTs I wanted and now have (FabFilter, Serum, Massive, etc).
I also use ChucK for some sample development programming.
Helped that I already played guitar and bass.
Looking into developing some gardening skills next!
https://www.jonathangreen.com/
For early Spring, you can use corn gluten as a crab grass preventer.
I'd like to share with you a couple things. I still love Salsa even though I stopped actively going to Salsa clubs a few years ago (like many things in life, activities will fade in interest/fade back in). As a note, most of the social dancing advice applies to a world without covid dangers.
1) Keep on going. You can take a break though.
One of my favorite articles from "The Unlikely Salsero" (archived copy) https://web.archive.org/web/20080316160328/http://www.unlike...
2) Footwork is everything. One of the mistakes beginners make is that when they do their basic step, they take "too big" of steps. This is acceptable when you are a beginner. However, when you start doing more complicated footwork/leading that is required by patterns, larger than needed steps can easily break the precise on-beat timing needed. Please try to focus on small steps.
3) Leading properly requires signaling. Something like a simple squeeze of the hand if you want your follower to stop. Also, prepping the follower for their turn by doing a very, very slight wind up.
4) Listen to Salsa music more if you are not already. The key feature of Salsa music is that breaks happen on the 8/12/16 bar of the normal song. If you can anticipate the breaks by counting in your head silently while dancing, this will make the difference in your lead from above-average to performance. I recommend Gilbert Santa Rosa. They are more laid back then the frenetic Salsa bands.
5) If you are just starting out, asking a follower to dance is one of the most intimidating things you can do. You will get rejected. Don't take it personally. When you get better, you still will be rejected. In a group class at a club, take note of the followers in the class (you usually rotate) who seem enthusiastic. Ask them to dance if you see them still around.
Rather, it’s the weight of management of things accumulated over the years that interrupt out natural curiosity and keep us from “learning”.
I believe you have to drop some things and not worry about forgetting them, in order to make time and space for new things.
I have, in the past year, become quite proficient at Docker Swarm, Flutter, Dart, and Go.
In the next year, I have my sights on Rust and a reintroduction to calculus.
Learning isn’t the issue. Finding the time to learn uninterrupted is the issue, IMHO.
I did give up Facebook completely, which has opened up a lot of time.
Cheers
Also, I buy a ton of tools. Tools are also great to put on your Christmas list when there’s nothing else you want. I’m actually outgrowing a 3 car garage and will be building a workshop building soon.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmIIOHKgJnGQruIVD_Zx71g
What would you say is the advantage to learning to touch type at this point? Has it been particularly helpful in some way?
Also, even as a programmer, you are probably writing quite a lot of prose in the form of documentation, emails etc.
I hardly ever do any text entry on my phone.
I could try and apply that to other parts of life (the whole “it became intuitive”), but I’m not too interested in going that deep right now.
Not quite in my 40s, but after getting into keyboards the last year I finally learned basic soldering skills. I've heard it referred to as "geek knitting", and sitting in the garage for a few hours, carefully soldering together custom keyboards while listening to music is a great way to relax and focus. I just looked up some basic tutorials, got a few start kits from Amazon and just went with it.
This has lead to other interests too, like learning more about electronics and low-level coding with micro-controllers.
It also has the benefit that our kids now see me as someone who can fix anything. Most toys are simple enough to repair with basic tools and hearing the phrase "daddy can fix it" is worth it. Also there's a slight hope that seeing physical STEM skills (as opposed to daddy typing into a computer all day for work) makes an impression and it perks their interest in general engineering pursuits as they get older.
I learned how to do a podcast starting in March and I believe my public speaking and interview skills have transformed. (I mean, I think.)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_KV4AjVDLLaeHrPw8b1dYg
I haven’t started yet, but surfing is next. I think my list might be a lot longer but I tend to forget what I’ve learned recently as I start to take it for granted.
I've had a longstanding interest in having my own business and it just hasn't really panned out. I was a homemaker for a long time. During the time, I could not wrap my brain around the concept of making money. It was alien to everything I was doing.
I had to unlearn my well-established ways of learning and learn to learn by flow and feel. At times, you will have huge wins, and at times, it will crush you. Whatever you must do, it is: show up to the next class.
Another key point was not quitting. I’m now a blue belt. I think about 90-95% of those who start, quit. All of the people I started with have long since quit. Sometimes I run into them in town and they talk about how they plan on getting back to class soon.
But I know that will never happen. I just smile and wish them well and hope for their best.
Objectively my results are pretty terrible, but I'm getting better over time, I find it relaxing in fun, and nothing beats eating a meal you've cooked on a plate you've made, while drinking coffee from your own unique mug:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDYo7FhjKkQ/
(No wheels involved, though I'm looking forward to trying those in the future.)
I’m so happy I finally started enjoying reading, and I will never stop now. It’s not only made me more calm, but also I tend to listen more to others, rather than needing to say my opinion on some subject. It’s like the more I read the more I know I have a lot to learn from others.
Even though I started late, it’s nothing I regret :-)
Then last year at 49 switched from right handed to left handed guitar since I'm left handed and was never very good right handed. I've been practicing every day for at least an hour for 11 months now and enjoy it a lot.
Learned a human language few years ago by moving to another country. Learned "competitive" pistol shooting over the last 2 years by signing up for training. Learned to ride a motorcycle this year by lots of driving with friends. Will learn to hunt next year by signing up for training and going hunting with friends. Contemplating learning another language next year by theoretical study and spending time with people who speak the language natively.
Not really have a "let's learn something every year" list or plan, it just happens that I stumble upon something that's unknown to me, have the resources to learn it and do it (I find it hard to not finish tasks I started...).
For my 40th birthday, I ran my first marathon. In my mid 40s I picked up woodworking. At 50, I learned to juggle. In the early 50s I started learning to play bluegrass banjo.
I'm looking forward to a lot more neat stuff. My aunt is in her mid-80s, she's a big participant in Olli classes. There's no end to learning.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osher_Lifelong_Learning_Instit...
I think it's easier to learn something new now. I know how to learn better.
[1] https://www.cyclekarts.com/ (cyclekarts in general) [2] https://www.cyclekartclub.com/registry/2012-CycleKart-Custom... (my cyclekart in particular).
//edit// Should also add I've done three novice strongman comps. I came last in them, but a competitive last and it was something for my daughter to watch me do. Also got a few PBs like doing a farmers walk with my bodyweight (100kg) in each hand.
And a big, very hard one: learning to live (and be a better person) happily and with (a new kind of) balance with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome -- big enforced lifestyle changes there. (Very hopefully I will learn all the lessons I should--if not it would be a major lost opportunity.) My doctor (world-class specialist) says they see a lot of suicides in the field (though to be clear, that is not a plan, threat, nor persistent thought of mine). Life is challenging and good, and I am grateful for very many things.
Edits: My learning style seems generally like sheer persistence, with specifics depending on the subject, often finding the basic/intro materials and working them into my daily/weekly routine somewhere, maybe a few relaxing intro videos or articles on a subject while resting.
Also Esperanto, and improving my limited Russian, with some Soviet movies with English subtitles, and reading the side-by-side text of the Book of Mormon in Russ. & English (it has the Russ. accents marked, to reduce the need to look up words--there is no rule for emphasis like there is in Spanish or Esperanto); the AnkiDroid app helps a lot. I learned to ride a unicycle after 40, not to a high level, but it was still a thrill--every time I could just get on and go down the street was a rush. A talented nephew ignored my "experienced" advice and learned unicycling much faster and better than I, on a 26-inch wheel even. (As you'd guess, there are some people on youtube with amazing skills, like "mountain unicycling" or freewheeling (no pedals) fast downhill.)
For education: If someone is seeking economical, high-quality, online university education (from start to Master's), BYU Pathway Worldwide and/or Western Governors University are impressive options, even if one needs to, for example, learn English and/or study skills in an inexpensive intro program. I and others have commented more about them in prior discussions, w/ more info in wikipedia.
And there are so many more things to learn in the future. I'd love to have some good musical improvisation & sightreading skills; wow.
(Heartwood School in Massachusetts is a great place; took each of my two sons there separately.)
(Re: OP comments re: kids being a confounding factor, we have 8.)
Edit: progress is weird though. Often hit a plateau and seemingly stuck there a long time, then for some seemingly inexplicable reason you advance. The strangest is when this happens while you're not playing and you return different/better than when you took a break.
The other thing I appreciate is that you can be good at whole board strategy or detailed tactical fights. The latter requires more thinking and the former you can get away (to a certain level) by developing intuition over time.
Started learning piano/music/singing a year or so back, impressed with the results although theory holding me back.
Got into road biking a couple of years back and did a 100 miler last year.
Continued technical development
Explored meditation and Buddhism
Improved parenting of my 2 young children and did lots of exciting stuff with them: cooking, baking, drawing, craft etc
Got divorced last year, so I've had a bit of time on my hands...
Meanwhile I've given up running volleyball, C, C++.
Just when pandemic started I realized I am happiest when I am learning something. There is something to look forward to every day.
Most of my new skills come because of my son. We do it together. He is faster at learning physical stuff, i am good at finding small improvements
It's been fun
can you please expand on it? India has many languages. Was your language choice random or for a reason?
I believe that you can (and should) start learning new skills at any age
Learning via YT is immensely helpful. I also live near a woodworking legend that offers classes and took a class. It was humbling and gave a good perspective on the time required to be good.
I have also started learning Unity and I am making my first 2D game. No previous game development experience.
Having a lot of fun learning both.
Musical instruments were mostly self-taught. Singing required a teacher. Main source of knowledge is web research and YouTube videos.
And as a product manager I'm always learning new things.
And learning a new language is much harder than learning an ordinary skill. So that's a different question.
Previously a network engineer.
I loved going back into the classroom (boot camp) to learn, and found I was more patient, and a better student than the past.
Turns out there are some things about me cannot be changed, even in a fantasy world.
Yup, happy to change skin (and gender) in anyway.
But any scenario in which my follower or dog dies.... it's reload from an old save time.
Any quest that's too yucky ethically, I just don't do.