[iamAy0]

IMO, age is not a problem but time management and responsibilities as others have mentioned. If you are raising kids or taking care of elder people, but you have poor management skills, or maybe you're just overwhelmed... then it's going to be problem to learn something, even if it's improving your knowledge in something you're already familiar with.

[nobodyandproud]

It’s not just that, though it plays a large part.

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.

[lcall]

Maybe part of that with age is simply that we are learning better to distinguish what has more worth, from the passing ephemera.