[petervm]

I'm in similar circumstances. Same age, a lot of intellectual interests, physically very active, don't feel old at all. And yet, that feeling of "been there, done that" is very recurring. When I think "I'm too old for XYZ", I take it as a sign that I've learned all I can from that type of experience and that I should move on to other pursuits.

>How do you maintain your excitement for something that you've done a bazillion times?

For me it's two things: 1) With a few special people, it doesn't matter if I've done something a million times, the interaction is always extremely rewarding and we always get new insights about what we're doing and the world; the activity is not novel in itself but there's a sense of progress in either skill or understanding; 2) Very obvious in theory: try something you've never tried before.

The hardest in my experience is to find friends who want to keep up with this. I crave novelty and progress of some sort, the feeling that I am a better person today than I was yesterday. I don't have a hard time meeting people, but it's getting harder and harder to find (and keep) my tribe. I suspect a lot of us feel something similar – this craving for a community of people you can relate to, spending time together, learning together, working together towards some shared goal. It's hard to make this happen at work and I haven't found it in hobbies either. The closest I've been to fulfilling this itch is with occasional side projects with others, retreats of different kinds, slow travelling, etc. I'd love to figure this out and make it happen more often with more people.