<story><title>The fertility of the older mind</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170828-the-amazing-fertility-of-the-older-mind</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>hathawsh</author><text>As a child I was obsessively aware of other people&amp;#x27;s opinions of me, so I was afraid to make mistakes. Today, I am much better at putting myself in the learning mindset because I have learned a basic truth: &lt;i&gt;learning is essentially the same as temporarily making a fool of myself, but in a safe place&lt;/i&gt;. That&amp;#x27;s how we all learned to walk, talk, and read, after all. If we can learn such complex skills as those then we can surely pick up a lot more skills, with effort.&lt;p&gt;I wish I had understood that as a child. I tried to learn to dance and act, but I mostly failed because I didn&amp;#x27;t really put myself out there. I did learn to sing thanks to choirs. I got into computers partly because all my mistakes were completely private.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s no reason I can&amp;#x27;t continue to learn new skills. I just need to shed my ego and try things without reservation.</text></comment>
<story><title>The fertility of the older mind</title><url>http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170828-the-amazing-fertility-of-the-older-mind</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>kevmo</author><text>I am 33, and I have paid a lot of anecdotal attention to what seems to keep my brain fresh, i.e. able to still learn new skills at a rapid clip. Just by way of credentials: I was a successful lawyer for a few years of my 20s (rising to level of federal law clerk), but then taught myself to program and have been working as a professional programmer since shortly before my 30th birthday.  Even though I am on the older side of the programmer market, my career has been great, and I&amp;#x27;ve been able to rapidly rise in the ranks.  I also know a fair amount about design and business strategy now.&lt;p&gt;The secret seems to be: Practice. If you want to be able to do new things, you need to always be doing new things.  I am always trying to learn something new - mentally and physically.  For example, I am very right-side dominant in my body, but I have lately been trying to open more doors with my left hand, throw stuff at the trashcan with it, etc.&lt;p&gt;Always be doing at least one new thing in your life if you want to be doing new things for the rest of your life.  It is OK to fail at a new thing! You just have to admit failure, pat yourself on the back for your courage, take stock of what went right and wrong, then pick a new new thing to do.&lt;p&gt;Relatedly, I have noticed that some people who I considered much smarter than me as a teenager often no longer appear to be, and I believe it is because they stopped trying to grow new types of skills and thus let their brains stagnate.&lt;p&gt;It is hard to do unfamiliar things, but so worth it.</text></comment>