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Ask HN: Have you picked up any new skill from scratch in your 40s or later?

100 points by akudha ↗ HN
I'm not talking about learning programming languages if you are already a programmer, but more like something totally different from what you do - like a new human language, new sport or music or any skill late in your life? 40s or later? If yes, what is it and how did you learn?

163 comments

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smarri
I'm not in the age demographic you mention, but also not far from it. I've picked up chess, German, and golf. I've found the key to getting better (so far) is simply to practice as often as possible, even a little per day. I also think being older I have the confidence that I can learn skills, and I know that I only need to apply myself. In my younger years I used to think you either had the ability or not, but now I know it really only takes practice.
etothepii
How've you found golf? I took it up at 30 and was hitting rounds of 200+ now I'm 33 I'm still happy if I break 120.
smarri
Similar here, it takes a lot of practice but really satisfying when I see progress. I also see this as a long term hobby that hopefully can continue for many decades, so happy to be on a slow path. Happy golfing etothepii!
japhyr
I've always thought it's important to learn something significant in each decade of life. In my 20s I started teaching and doing long-distance bicycling trips. In my 30s I moved from NYC to Alaska, and started doing mountain rescue work. In my 40s I started writing and learned to drive a boat on the ocean. That was intimidating in a fishing town, where it feels like everyone else has known how to drive a boat since they were three years old.

In my 50s I hope to learn a musical instrument, although that's a couple years away so who knows what's in store then.

Learning something new keeps us young and humble, and engaged. It also connects us with people outside our current bubble. People talk about our minds becoming less elastic as we age, but that's offset by practice at learning new things. I do think it's good to learn things with some element of risk from time to time; it's part of what keeps us sharp, and forces us to evaluate our own competency level.

What are you interested in learning?

kingkongjaffa
You are very interesting!

How did you decide what you wanted to do at each juncture?

japhyr
When I finished undergrad I started teaching middle school, and after two years of teaching I finally had a summer off with zero obligations. I had read A Walk Across America, about a guy who walked across the US. It sounded fascinating but it took him several years. So I settled on biking, because you can get all the way across the US on a bike in a summer. I did that a couple times, and then spent a year living on a bike. I rode from Seattle to Maine (through northeastern Canada), down to Florida, over to California, and ended in Alaska.

That led me to move to Alaska a few years later, which led to mountain rescue work. Teaching led to writing. Living in a coastal fishing town led to boating. Each adventure leads to the next. :)

I wouldn't want to live forever, but I'd happily live a thousand years and spend ten years on a hundred different things.

gcanyon
Serious question: do you think there are only 100 things that would be interesting to learn?
japhyr
No. It's a simple way of saying I'd love to live longer than a human lifetime, but would never want to be immortal.
vram22
Cool. I read A Walk across America, in serial form (2 parts) in the National Geographic magazine, long ago. It was great, and the first time I heard of the concept of such a long journey on foot, although I knew about people driving across America. It was fairly common in those days when gas was much cheaper. Some of my older relatives settled in the US had done it too, and used to tell us kids about it. A couple of points I remember are him guzzling a liter or more of soft drinks at a stop after a long walk on a hot summer day, and his stay with and warm welcome by an African American family.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_Across_America

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jenkins_(travel_author...

Grazester
Question. It is normal to say drive a boat? My father was a sea captain for his entire life and never used the word drive. I also grew up around fishermen and being onboard when they were in port,them like my dad used the word steer or captain.
japhyr
Here in southeast Alaska, I usually hear people say "drive". For example if people are talking about a somewhat sketchy or tense return from a trip, you might ask them "Who was driving?"

I never hear anyone say "Who was captain?" or "Who was steering?" "Captain" seems to imply a title, and "steering" sounds like you just took the wheel for a moment.

That may be different for people who spend a lot of time on commercial boats. When I've been in formal settings, say on a police boat while doing search and rescue work, we will talk about the person who is filling the role of captain. But we still say that person is "driving" the boat.

megameter
I specifically remember seeing this distinction in, of all things, a 40's war-era Superman comic, where an everyman G.I. character tasked with truck driving was told, "anyone can steer - we need drivers!" Which makes me believe "drive" probably is nautical in origin and then corrupted through casual usage in automotive transit, where steering and driving are more often equated.
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tomcam
Maybe not. Long before there were cars, the people who held the reins of a carriage were called drivers. They were literally driving the horses forward. So too the mule drivers
scottmey
“Pilots a boat”, is what I was taught.
wenc
I’m a learner by nature and though I graduated college over 2 decades ago, I have always continued to take classes in the community. (usually through continuing-ed programs at a local university or through local for-profit schools. I’ve heard—but have not explored this myself—that community colleges also tend to offer interesting courses at affordable prices — eg languages, business, vocational etc)

Some classes I’ve taken in recent years:

- Full (semester/quarter long) courses: story telling, creative writing, Alexander technique, languages (8 quarters and still ongoing), a history of Western civilization (a 3 quarter sequence)

- Once off classes: archery, calligraphy, flash fiction writing, editing, language classes on iTalki, history seminars, harmony singing

I also want to say that this is one of the main advantages of living in a big city [0] with major universities (in my case UChicago [1] and Northwestern) and specialty schools [2].

When I lived in a smaller city I couldn’t have taken a fraction of the course I’d listed above. Different strokes for different folks but for me, the creative energy of a big city calls to me.

(just for context, I have a full time job but no kids. I never felt that taking courses outside of work was ever too stressful — just needed a bit of time management)

[0] Chicago’s Park District offers a slew of inexpensive (subsidized) courses to the public.

https://apm.activecommunities.com/chicagoparkdistrict/Activi...

[1] The Graham School has a catalogue of humanities classes open to the public.

[2] Second City Chicago has programs open to the public.

PopeDotNinja
I'm 46. I just started taking Salsa dancing lessons.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHtpVk2BL6_/

wallflower
Good luck!

I'd like to share with you a couple things. I still love Salsa even though I stopped actively going to Salsa clubs a few years ago (like many things in life, activities will fade in interest/fade back in). As a note, most of the social dancing advice applies to a world without covid dangers.

1) Keep on going. You can take a break though.

One of my favorite articles from "The Unlikely Salsero" (archived copy) https://web.archive.org/web/20080316160328/http://www.unlike...

2) Footwork is everything. One of the mistakes beginners make is that when they do their basic step, they take "too big" of steps. This is acceptable when you are a beginner. However, when you start doing more complicated footwork/leading that is required by patterns, larger than needed steps can easily break the precise on-beat timing needed. Please try to focus on small steps.

3) Leading properly requires signaling. Something like a simple squeeze of the hand if you want your follower to stop. Also, prepping the follower for their turn by doing a very, very slight wind up.

4) Listen to Salsa music more if you are not already. The key feature of Salsa music is that breaks happen on the 8/12/16 bar of the normal song. If you can anticipate the breaks by counting in your head silently while dancing, this will make the difference in your lead from above-average to performance. I recommend Gilbert Santa Rosa. They are more laid back then the frenetic Salsa bands.

5) If you are just starting out, asking a follower to dance is one of the most intimidating things you can do. You will get rejected. Don't take it personally. When you get better, you still will be rejected. In a group class at a club, take note of the followers in the class (you usually rotate) who seem enthusiastic. Ask them to dance if you see them still around.

davedx
I learned Dutch, passed the state exams and obtained my citizenship in my late 30’s / early 40’s. I honestly didn’t find it any harder than learning when I was younger, only that my life was very different (lots more demands, responsibilities and distractions). I haven’t picked up anything new since then really though, I guess you might count learning how to invest in stocks, due diligence, fundamental analysis but that’s not a huge subject like a language is.
mrdonbrown
Video creation and editing [1]. I used to speak at tech conferences but after taking a long break, I wanted to get back into some form of instructional content. My kids are obsessed with YouTube, and I started a new startup, so I figured I'd give it a go. As for how I learned, well, doing it, and of course, watching YouTube videos.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmIIOHKgJnGQruIVD_Zx71g

elvezpablo
I’m 45 and just picked up horse archery. It’s been an amazing way to challenge my self physically and mentally.
unconf1
i got my masters in CS when i was 41 without prior dev experience if that counts
mmmBacon
Did you have BS in CS or something else?
soneca
Maybe not the example you seek, but I learned programming (web development) from scratch when I was 37yo. I did it online (freeCodeCamp), by myself. 6 to 8 hours a day for about 8 months until I got my first job.

Now I am 41, I am still new to the new career and continuously out of my comfort zone. But once I am more used to the pace and life of a programmer, I will probably want to learn something else. No idea what yet, but I will.

sangli
Could you tell me what courses you took ?
soneca
First 2 months just www.freeCodeCamp.org, nothing else. Then I started to also do small projects following tutorials and official documentation (mostly in React). That’s it, no courses.
mkovach
I learned Korean, re-learned French. Learned to build cigars and since I'm a later bloomer, learned about parenting (had my first child at 40).
akudha
Any resources for learning French? Did you learn it casually (mostly for speaking, I mean) or more seriously - like for reading French literature?
mkovach
I started with Duolingo, then reading children’s books and slowly progressed up. Also I started reading French news sites with lots of help from google translate
sontek
I'm only 35 but I've continued to pick up skills throughout my life and I've only increased it as I got older:

    - Started learning masonry and general handyman work in 2018 (33 years old)
    - Started learning Spanish in 2019 (34 years old)
    - Started learning piano in 2020 (35 years old)
My goal for 2021 is to learn a lot about electricity, batteries, etc. and would like to build a little off-grid backup
pen2l
How are you finding your progress on Spanish and piano? How are you learning it — private one on on instruction or self study?
sontek
Spanish is going quite well in year two. Year one was basically worthless. I didn’t really know how to learn the language and made a ton of mistakes.

First, I spent the first few months studying grammar rules and learning words but didn’t do much speaking because I felt I didn’t have a good “baseline”

Second, once I realized speaking was important, I went all in... did 1 hour a day voice calls for 2 months. This ended up being worthless because I didn’t really recall mistakes I made.

So what I realized that the best approach was hybrid... I should be doing some academic studying AND some speaking. But the biggest change I made was actually writing down the mistakes I made during my video calls with the native speaker and studying those mistakes in my flashcards.

mario54
> But the biggest change I made was actually writing down the mistakes

I've been learning mandarin for a couple of months and I do something similar.

My girlfriend can speak it so what I do is speak mandarin during our suppertime every day and I have google translate beside me. If there are words I can't say and want to remember later, I star the translation and add it to an Anki deck later on.

I haven't really figured out a lightway way to capture problems with forming whole sentences, though. It kind of breaks the flow the conversation too much if I'm writing down whole sentences.

Do you capture only problems with remembering specific words or also problems with forming whole sentences?

pier25
I'm 41 and I just bought a drum set. Although it's not totally new to me. I played a bit of piano and percussion when I was younger.

I think it's easier to learn something new now. I know how to learn better.

falcolas
Proofreading. I’m a native english speaker, but I’ve always stunk at grokking the underlying rules of English. But, as it turns out, I didn’t have to. I’ve read and spoken enough that the rules have just become justifications for what I know intuitively. It all just kinda makes sense now.

I could try and apply that to other parts of life (the whole “it became intuitive”), but I’m not too interested in going that deep right now.

miki_tyler
emacs. It is taking forever, but worth it.
rwdim
Yes.. being post-40 doesn’t inherently lessen one’s ability to learn.

Rather, it’s the weight of management of things accumulated over the years that interrupt out natural curiosity and keep us from “learning”.

I believe you have to drop some things and not worry about forgetting them, in order to make time and space for new things.

I have, in the past year, become quite proficient at Docker Swarm, Flutter, Dart, and Go.

In the next year, I have my sights on Rust and a reintroduction to calculus.

Learning isn’t the issue. Finding the time to learn uninterrupted is the issue, IMHO.

I did give up Facebook completely, which has opened up a lot of time.

Cheers

conductr
On the flip side, at 40, money is much less of a factor. I’ve spent a small fortune on tinker projects as I’ve learned about hardware and EE. I’m slowly building up to it, but one future goal is to do an classic car EV conversion with my son in a few years. Then I’ll give it to him as his first car.

Also, I buy a ton of tools. Tools are also great to put on your Christmas list when there’s nothing else you want. I’m actually outgrowing a 3 car garage and will be building a workshop building soon.

omarhaneef
You should also ask if the people who learned new skills were raising kids. I have a feeling that is the dominant confounding variable.
poulsbohemian
It’s definitely harder with kids, but I’ve actually used my kids as a catalyst for learning. There are loads of hobbies and activities I’ve taken up just as a way to expose them to the world.
omarhaneef
Like what? Share some ideas, please.
codegeek
Learning swimming at 38 because I want to swim with my kids who can swim well already
ishjoh
Very cool, my wife is learning for the same reason.
ChristianGeek
Geocaching is an easy hobby to learn (and much cheaper than it used to be for anyone with a smartphone) and gets you outside with the kids, who consider it a treasure hunt. It might be a little challenging during quarantine, but it’s a great way to get some exercise and explore the area around you.
BrandoElFollito
Thank you for mentioning that. We did casual geocaching with my children when they were 8-12ish.

It was a great opportunity to teach them some things and learn others too. Especially unusual things like washing houses (I do not know the English word for that, these are places people were coming to wash their clothes, usually a water source and stone washing places, under a roof). Their history was surprisingly interesting.

poulsbohemian
I mean - whatever you can imagine? We’ve played chess, worked on learning languages, picked up musical instruments, learned to ski, learned to hunt mushrooms, electronics projects, woodworking projects... sure sometimes you have to keep it at an age-appropriate level, but there are things I want to learn and if I include them then they benefit and grow as well. My kids are now at an age too where they are starting to pick things up on their own and then they can teach me.
stevekemp
Cookery? Languages? Music? Singing? Dancing/Excercise?

To be honest I did those kinda things already, except for the singing, but having a small child those are the kinda things he likes at the moment. No doubt his tastes will change over time, but I'm gonna try to join in with his interests at least until such time as he doesnt' want his "uncool" dad doing so.

gadders
I started strength training partly in response to having kids and wanting to be around for them.
FreshFries
Having kids forces you to learn new skills, at least for me since I had 0 experience "growing kids from 0 to 20".

Besides the skills to keep them alive, teach them to walk, talk, behave, read, get dressed, keep clean, be safe, etc. There are: picking the right neighbourhood for young families, finding the appropriate schools, dealing with friends of your kids and their parents, planning interesting holidays, adhering to all the mandatory festivities at the corresponding days.

If that does not count as leaning new skills, I do not know what does.

heelix
Plumbing. I installed a shower and was taught some basic copper soldering by my father in law. Next bathroom did some very aggressive 6 shower head configuration that required considerable precision. When I can actually purchase a zen3 CPU, I'll be going copper piping on the rig.
zerr
Anyone acquiring advanced piano or guitar skills/chops?
cpr
Timber framing around 45.

(Heartwood School in Massachusetts is a great place; took each of my two sons there separately.)

(Re: OP comments re: kids being a confounding factor, we have 8.)

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.
weinzierl
I started taking weight training seriously about a year ago, Then came the virus and the lock-downs. Gyms closed for weeks where I live. At the moment they are still closed again. I didn't want to build a home gym with heavy weights, especially because hopefully gyms will open again some day.

I also didn't want to lose the muscle I built which made me segue into body weight training and calisthenics. Previously I had never been interested in any of that but for the moment it is something I'm really enjoying and I'm making good progress with. I think I will stick to it in addition to the weight training even when gyms are opening up again.

akudha
How did you learn calisthenics? Any resources you can share?
zuzuleinen
Not OP, but I used the following resources:

Convict Conditioning book. There is also an app on Android call Convict Conditioning which I use to track progress.

calimove.com Paid classes but they really teach you good form

mandeepj
> I didn't want to build a home gym with heavy weights

if you want to be a minimalist then a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells would be enough. You don't need much

pentae
Adding to this, you'd be surprised how well resistance power bands work. You can pick up an off brand set from Amazon which is very affordable and can be used to hit every muscle group, it's like having an entire gym in a small bag.
monster_group
Learning to play guitar. I started with self learning. There are excellent tutorials on YouTube and other websites. Got quite frustrated due to painfully (pun intended) slow progress. Then took lessons for six months. Music lessons are expensive! So once I got the basics down, I decided to go back to auto-didactism. Without a doubt, learning to play guitar is one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life. I think clearing Google interview is way easier.
AndyDevine
Rock climbing, soccer, disc golf, crochet, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, Angular, management, Buddhism.

Meanwhile I've given up running volleyball, C, C++.

Arun2009
I will be 40 soon.

I picked up the rudiments of Sanskrit enough to be able to understand lectures in the language and read straightforward prose. I also gained a basic understanding of Indic philosophy, but I suppose that is not a skill. Now my aim is to deepen these skills to more advanced levels.

Currently I am also trying to learn Physics and Mathematics at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. It's taking forever because I keep getting distracted with life generally. But my aim is nothing less than gaining a solid grasp of our current modern understanding of how the universe works. I hope to get somewhere respectable by the time I am 45.

rramadass
>I also gained a basic understanding of Indic philosophy, but I suppose that is not a skill

It is a Skill, just not a physical one. Study of Indian Philosophy is a lifelong endeavour where you have to continually challenge yourself with different concepts, interpretations and models of the world.

PS: You might want to get the multi-volume A History of Indian Philosophy by Surendranath Dasgupta for reference.

Arun2009
Dasgupta was one of the first authors I read. Also worked through some volumes of Potter's "Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies".

Now my aim is to study these topics in Sanskrit with a traditional scholar. Currently trying to see how to make this work.

rramadass
You are well advanced in your Indology "skill" if you have already started on Karl Potter's works :-)

>Now my aim is to study these topics in Sanskrit with a traditional scholar. Currently trying to see how to make this work.

Contact BHU at https://www.bhu.ac.in/ and ask for advice on how to go about it. It is easier now since there are lots more focus and avenues for remote study/work.