[jabl]

Same. Although I had long ago decided that an academic career wasn't for me, I was always thinking that after I finish my PhD (computational condensed matter physics), I would somewhat keep up with my field just for fun. But between kids, work, other hobbies etc. I never really had the time nor energy to do that. So while I'm somewhat confident I could relatively quickly relearn much of what I have forgotten, it also feels that world is slipping further and further away for each moment. Not that I really dwell over it, there's a lot of interesting things in life and so little time, you can't just do everything.

I don't really miss lunch table discussions though. Typically if it's by members of the general public, they're sprouting some misunderstanding based on some magazine article they read, written by some journalist who didn't really grok the topic either, and I can't just be arsed to start lecturing people how it's not that simple and their understanding is all wrong. More agreeable to just talk about football, beer, or the weather. Or if it's a lunch table discussion between experts, then it's usually about some minute detail of their particular expertise and you need to be pretty knowledgeable about that particular subtopic in order to be able to contribute.