[justboxing]

> How has this affected me? I’ve mentally atrophied. I now feel like I can’t talk about any subject with more than a centimeter of depth. A half a decade ago, I could dive with you to the penetralia of convergence theorems of hypergeometric series, but now I cannot. Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer science, and instead sticking to this comfort zone of what I know.

How does one go about overcoming mental atrophy? Especially after spending a decade or more programming, I think most (if not all) developers battle with this problem...

If any one of you has successfully done this, please share.

[Hermitian909]

I've seen many engineers manage this by simply finding ways to work less.

Programming is sufficiently difficult that time it takes to complete tasks can vary by more than order of magnitude. I've given a junior engineer a task that would take me 2 hours, had them come back with a solution in a week, and been happy with the result.

So if you achieve a certain level of skill you can take jobs that are "beneath you" and claim the tasks that took you 10-20 hours actually took you 40. It's not particularly honest, but most employers aren't willing to engage in fair market rates at 20 hours a week so people find ways to get what they want outside of the system.

[pkaye]

Yeah that is kind of how I'm approaching it after I was diagnosed with serious health issues. I just take it easy on my job where I can do in 20 hours what others take 40 hours. I still get paid well above what I need to live. My travel times to work are good. I rarely have to work on weekends.

[ellius]

I think people fail to deeply reflect on what they want from life. I'll share my list, because maybe it will help someone else to figure out theirs:

• Maintain my body

• Maintain a sense of mental tranquility

• Work on projects and learn things I find meaningful and interesting

• Visit my friends and family in my hometown regularly

• Have a good home life with my wife and someday children

• Have a job that keeps me interested but isn't so exhausting it detracts from the above

If you don't have a list like this, and you don't know what resonates with you, then your actions will be unguided and you'll not find any sense of peace or progress. Pay attention to what helps you be happy, reflect on it and use it to guide your choices and use of time in this life.

[tracker1]

You cannot... you learn new things, old things fade. What you can do is maintain and dedicate time to learning things, and/or keeping your older skill refreshed.

About a decade and a half ago, I worked on eLearning systems and training materials. I've learned and forgotten about more things than I could probably think about when trying. I used to know, pretty intently how certain aircraft engines worked, now I'd have a hard time just simply describing how a jet engine works in general.

Why, because I don't use it regularly. I've since worked with other languages, platforms, systems and constantly learn. You will learn and forget a great many things in a lifetime. Most people would be hard pressed to remember as a young adult materials they covered in 5th grade.

What it comes down to is keep reading, learning and trying new things. You won't remember everything, don't even try. What you can do is keep your mind able to think.

As a small aside, avoid refined sugars and seed (vegetable) oils. There are a lot of significant links to dementia and Alzheimers disease aside from being two of the largest causes of inflammation from diet.

[lawn]

I think there's a simple solution, but it's certainly not easy.

You set aside time for this intellectual stimulation. Don't let the work drain you off energy, your focus should be elsewhere.

Of course it's only really possible for very few people. But even a little bit might help. Personally we moved away from the city and to a small community. I started working remote and I've been working 60% or 80% for about a year (I wrote some words about it[0]). The rest of the time I've been writing a book.[1]

It's been quite helpful to keep the intellectual stimulation going, although I still have the stress of having to accomplish something, so it's not completely perfect. But I'm scared of going back to work 100% again, as I'm pretty sure it will kill any drive and energy I have.

[0]: https://www.jonashietala.se/blog/2019/10/18/we_moved_away_fr... [1]: https://whycryptocurrencies.com/

[swader999]

This guy's two hour commute each way seemed to me to easily be his largest issue.

[taneq]

If you don't use it you lose it, but if you had it once, it's far easier to get it back.

I've had multiple times when, for whatever reason, I ended up not coding for months or years. It always takes at least a few days (and honestly, it's getting longer as I get older) to get my head back into it, but after month or so of full time coding I'm making progress again. And honestly, I feel like these breaks have made me a better software developer, because each time I come back with broader experience and a wider view of what I'm trying to accomplish.

Arguably I'm not as good a computer scientist as I would have been if I'd stuck just with coding for my whole life, but I feel like I'm a far better maker-of-useful-things.

[darkmighty]

(standard disclaimers above generic advice that may or may not apply...) Trust your intuition, but not completely, when it comes to work and challenge. We are all lazy because we have very strong instincts to save energy and avoid risks -- that probably makes much sense in nature (where significant risks can mean death to natural causes or conflict). Even today, if you have life set at a boring job, there's not much to be gained, naively and from a naturalistic perspective, from constantly picking difficult topics to learn and stay out of your comfort zone. I think I can call it naive because of course cognitive flexibility and keeping learning may prove its worth if situations change and your safe occupation isn't so safe anymore. But in the end, as another person called, I think the primary motivator is some hunger, some desire to produce great things, to stay sharp/awesome, to beauty, that goes beyond pure individualistic safeguarding.

If you want to avoid mental atrophy, my advice is to find that hunger, find some sense of intense beauty, and pursue it even if it goes against your instincts sometimes.

(also as others noted: you need to be in a position where you can plausibly even find and satisfy this hunger; if your work and commute occupies all your time that's not going to happen of course)