At 40, a person is ...
"You show me an American who can keep his mouth shut and I'll eat him." -- Newspaperman from Frank Capra's _Meet_John_Doe_
"You show me an American who can keep his mouth shut and I'll eat him." -- Newspaperman from Frank Capra's _Meet_John_Doe_
Parents (Score:5, Insightful)
The older my parents get, the older "Old" gets.
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If your parents are still around, I guess...
My father died when I was 6 and my mom died of lung cancer when she was 50 - I was in my early thirties when this happened.
All of my grandparents are no longer around, most had heart disease (grandfather had three heart attacks in his 40s) or lung cancer. I figure if I even get to 50 without a health mishap it'll be a miracle.
Old for me is... undefined? Hell, I feel old and I'm not even 40 yet...
40 is an artificial boundary (Score:5, Interesting)
Posted as AC because I don't feel like putting up with all the haters and doubters who will shitpost because they hate me for reminding them how much they're lacking, and the jerks who will call me a liar.
Re:40 is an artificial boundary (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:40 is an artificial boundary (Score:5, Interesting)
My martial arts instructor always said "You don't grow old from the years; you grow old from inactivity".
The sign at the entrance to our city park states, "You don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing".
There's a lot of truth to that, I think. I was in fantastic shape until right before I turned 30. I needed a bunch of back surgeries and stopped working out. Then I never felt well enough to start again. Of course the pages kept coming off of the calendar and then I had some other medical issues as time went on. I finally got sick of it back in June of this year and have been pushing hard to get back into shape ever since. I dropped 55 lbs. since June and just did 10K this morning in a little under 50 minutes (best time yet this year), and did another 3.4 miles after that. I'm doubtful I'll ever have the muscle mass I did. Or the speed. But I'm not 30, or even 40 anymore. Regardless, I feel a hell of a lot better than I did a year ago.
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I can confirm this. I was pretty healthy until I developed chromic fatigue, despite also having arthritis. Once you reduce your level of physical activity things start to slide fairly quickly.
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The sign at the entrance to our city park states, "You don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing".
The head of my Warcraft guild says the same thing.
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The sign at the entrance to our city park states, "You don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing".
I take it your park is not in Soviet Russia?
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True. Never could work out why giving someone two fingers was supposed to be ruder than one.
To be serious it appeared from my efforts with undergraduates that hardly anyone learned about significant digits in school.
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I believe you, but only because of the particular details you included: you train hard every day, and you used to be overweight and sickly. Otherwise, even a reasonably fit 50-year-old is no match for a normal, unathletic 20-year-old.
At 40 I was slim, fit, and healthy, with good stamina, and sexually very active. At 50 I was beginning to notice changes, and my activity level dropped. By 60, all the above had changed dramatically, due in part to specific medical issues.
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My fiftieth birthday was the exact day that comet Hale-Bopp reached its maximum brightness. You young whippersnappers will have to ask your parents what 1997 was like.
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On the contrary, it's a good reminder that our bodies are really remarkable machines, and can often come back effectively from a lifetime of abuse if you make effort to do it.
Don't fool yourself (Score:3)
I am 47 and I have been a life long competitive athlete. Soccer and track in high school, swimming and track in college, and competed in national surf lifeguard championships. Military, masters swimming, and I still work out the beach patrol, plus I surf, ski, and swim (masters). I kept it up, eat right, and generally take care of myself. Lately I have been lazy and lift instead of running.
I tell you this because while I believe you have made incredible gains and have achieved what you claim.... **I** c
"Experienced" (Score:3, Interesting)
In the professional sense, the only word I feel appropriate is "experienced". Whatever it is that you've been doing for the past twenty years, whatever it is that you view yourself as, at 40, you'd better have a pretty good handle on it and be able to demonstrate judgement and produce work that other people respect.
A surprising number of 40+ people I've meet don't meet this criterion.
Re:"Experienced" (Score:5, Insightful)
the only word I feel appropriate is "experienced"
Well, some are - some aren't. The best professionals will have used their 40 years - maybe 20 of which have been in the pursuit of their career, to expand their knowledge, experience and value. However there are a significant number of people who have been working in IT (and many other fields) who gained one year of experience very early in their careers and have simply repeated that year ever since. And some will have regressed.
Re:"Experienced" (Score:4, Funny)
Amen. I worked with a fellow who claimed "thirty-three years of experience". I claimed he'd had six months of experience sixty-six times.
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I worked with a fellow who claimed "thirty-three years of experience".
First time through, I read this as 'I worked with a felon who claimed "thirty-three years of experience".'
Young Enough To Deny Being Middle-Aged (Score:2)
By my late 40s I had to admit that I was probably middle-aged, and at 50 you really can't deny it, but 40? Not over the hill yet, plus it was still the boom years and everybody was having lots of fun doing new cool stuff and getting overpaid for discovering how to sell dogfood On The Internet!
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Poll purpose (Score:4, Interesting)
And then I realized there is a way our answers could be interesting to the people running the site--demographics and marketing. Should the ads and tone of this site be aimed toward a younger crowd who thinks 40 is over the hill? Should they cater to an older, more established audience? Maybe they should market to people who expect to live fast and die young.
Am I being overly cynical and just imagining things? Is the question of what people on this site think about the age 40 actually interesting and relevant in some way that I'm missing? Or do other people think this is a play to get some free demographics data?
Re:Poll purpose (Score:5, Funny)
Am I being overly cynical and just imagining things?
No, you are just old.
Re:Poll purpose (the simple explanation) (Score:5, Interesting)
Nah
Actually, it's my 40th birthday, and I've been amused (pleased, too) by the nice greetings I've gotten from friends both older and younger. If Dice Incorporated Amalgamated International Limited wants to make something of the results, they're free to, but since (this being a Slashdot poll) the answers are far less the point than the discussion, I don't think that's very likely. Our polls (we love poll submissions, by the way) are kernels for discussion, and often the product of whimsy. There are lots of ways that age (esp. in technical fields) tends to come up on Slashdot, and a pretty wide range both of what "old" *is* and what it means.
There may be many conspiracies in the world; this just isn't one :)
It's all relative (Score:5, Insightful)
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With 40, I really would like to take shit from adults if I can have 20 again.
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Re:It's all relative (Score:5, Funny)
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Kilobytes! You were lucky! In my day we 'ad to work with less that 1 kilobit and a 9 character display.
There you go again... confusing your HP calculator with a computer... (grin)
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bah, in my day we had two cups and eleven beads.
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I am not even 40 yet, and already said these days for years. :P
40? Bah! (Score:2)
Nothing really changes at 40. Now, when you hit 50...THAT is when bad shit starts.
At 40 a person is... (Score:5, Insightful)
...whatever their mentality dictates.
I've seen people at 40 behaving like they're 60, and people at 60 behaving like they're 30, and all the shades of grey in-between.
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What about 30s who look and behave like a teen(ager)? :P
Yes, I am having fun yet. (Score:5, Funny)
It's been said that the older you get, the faster time seems to pass.
It's also been said that time flies while you're having fun.
Therefore, the older I get, the more fun I must be having.
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Ironic... yours was the last comment on this post just now, and the silly quote below the Slashdot logo at the bottom says "Are you having fun yet?"
The Future is Surreal (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm 53 and it sometimes feels surreal. I remember when I was little figuring out that I would be 38 on 1 January 2000, and it felt so far in the future. That was 15 years ago now.
There have been ups and downs. I gained a lot of weight in my 40s, but have since lost it and am now healthier than I've ever been. My career stagnated a bit in my 30s, so I went back to school, learned lots of new stuff, and went on to bigger and better things.
A few years ago I looked at the numbers and realized I've been officially a woman for the majority of my life. OK, yeah, I'm one of those. One of those who is very good with Linux kernels, MySQL, VoIP, and various other technologies. Deal with it. I'm me, I like being me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Re:The Future is Surreal (Score:4, Insightful)
A few years ago I looked at the numbers and realized I've been officially a woman for the majority of
my life. OK, yeah, I'm one of those. One of those who is very good with Linux kernels, MySQL, VoIP, and
various other technologies. Deal with it. I'm me, I like being me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
You're 53 years old, posting as AC, and feel the need to announce that you're a transsexual and dare anyone to have a problem with you? FWIW, I don't think it's the world that has a problem with you--it seems like you have a problem with the world.
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People like her often develop a problem with the world after the world repeatedly demonstrates that it has a problem with them.
Someone who transitioned over two or three decades ago like she did, back when the world was even less accepting and understanding than it is now, probably even more so than someone just starting the process today.
I'd go back to my forties (Score:3, Interesting)
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I'm better off in my fifties. True, I sometimes make noises standing up, verbal or otherwise, but I've almost run out of stupid mistakes since I've already made most of them, and my finances are much better than they were a decade ago.
On Sunday... (Score:2)
40's easy, it's 30 that's the hard one. (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember my 30th as a sort of wake. My 40th birthday was the best birthday party I ever had.
When you are in your 20's you know you are at your peak physically and life's ahead of you (if you are fortunate).
It's easy to let the number 30 affect your outlook. Professional sportsmen start planning retirement at 30.
Instead of mourning my 30's I realised that better people than myself hadn't go to 40 and so I celebrated having had 40 years and being grateful for them.
I've continued with that view for 6 years now and was recently wondering how I can make the 50th party better than the 40th.
At the end of the day it's just a number.
It's the life in your days not the days in your life that matter.
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I'm with you. I felt a little more grown up, established in my 30s, had enough money to have fun and enjoy life a bit more, and enough sense not to do too much stupid sh1t generally speaking. My 30s were actually better than my 20s in many ways.
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Shoot make your 47th party better than your 40th. Always be improving. Besides it's the last prime before 61.
Great insight, wish I had the points right now to vote you up!
(why did someone vote that comment down?)
Let's not forget and I can always do my 0x30th again when I get to 48 ;)
Middle age starts at 45 (Score:2)
They are in their prime (Score:2)
They are in their prime
Dead ... (Score:3)
No judgement-free options? (Score:2)
At 40 a person is statistically close to the middle of their probable lifespan, and that's neither inherently good nor inherently bad. I'm disappointed that there is no option for that. You're neither a younger nor elderly, you're middle-aged, but that's neither "in a good way" or derogatory, it just is. Anything good or derogatory there might be to say about you would have nothing to do with your age.
40? (Score:2)
Missing option: "4 decades old"
At 37 I have been though the 18 barrier, the 21 barrier, and the 30 barrier. They have all felt like non-events. I expect 40 to be similarly anticlimactic.
Meh.
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At 37 I have been though the 18 barrier, the 21 barrier, and the 30 barrier. They have all felt like non-events. I expect 40 to be similarly anticlimactic.
Meh.
50's the same. I'll be 60 in a bit over 3 years - i doubt that'll be much different really, either.
Old is... (Score:2)
10 years older than you are now, and young in 10+ years your junior.
I'm paraphrasing someone who said something along those lines, but I think in general it rings true.
At 40 a person is... a father (in my case) (Score:2)
I became a dad around my 40th b-day, so to me 40 will always an awesome awesome year :)
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will always 'be', oops
One is not old untill... (Score:2)
...the woman cutting what is left of your hair leans in and says, 'Hold still Dear, I'm going to do your ears now."
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Just buzz it military style. It saves a lot of time, and if you're broke, money, too.
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Regardless of age, we all have a bright future. (Score:2, Insightful)
I have an article I wrote about aging in light of God existing [fatherspiritson.com]
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I guess the upside of that is you won't be disappointed. No christian ever died and then realised they were wrong - because once your brain is dead, that's you finished. Forever.
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If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.
Thankfully God let me know he is real so I know Jesus Christ is real. He wants us all to be good to each other, and love each other. I think most people would agree that this world needs more love.
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I think most people would agree that this world needs more love.
I agree. I also think we need less delusion.
However, i understand some people can't cope with the fact that life's completely pointless and that we totally cease to exist at the end of it, and if religion helps those people, then that's ok. I don't want to attack people's harmless delusions - unless they think it's ok to shove those delusions down other people's throats, or force their imaginary god's mythical will on other people that is. If they do, then i'll say what i think too.
took up snowboarding at 50 (Score:2)
I suppose that means that 40 is still too young to figure out what you want to do (besides sex, of course).
Psychologically speaking... (Score:5, Interesting)
The downsides of physical aging can be dealt with.
Brush your teeth, add a decade or two to your oral health.
Eat properly, (low carbs, high saturated fats), you'll be horse healthy for ages, and a lot of those so-called age related ailments will not pester you. Add in enough sleep enough, and you'll add years. -Oh, and give blood regularly. Iron toxicity is a real thing.
Anyway, I'm half-way to 50, and my bod looks and feels great. I can't pass for twenties anymore; a bit too much gray and a few too many nicks and scars. But my cheeks are rosy, skin is tight, belly flat, everything works and I have lots of energy. -And I think we're all supposed to be like that. We just, as a culture, are too loaded down with toxins to experience what these bodies of ours are supposed to be able to do; we poison ourselves into aging prematurely.
But that's not the issue. It's my brain, man!
It's sharp as ever, but...
The thing I miss about being a teenager or a twenty-something, or heck, being seven years old, is the illusion!
When I was a kid, I didn't know anything! The world was filled with possibilities which were never really actually possible. You really *could* become a space cadet or whatever. And True Love was going to happen any day now! -Before you broke down the mechanics and physiology and neurology and psychology.., Love is a truly sparkly wonder, filled with aches and meanings which you could never quite put your finger on, but were powerful and passionate and crazy. It felt real, but just out of reach. The fact that it was a high produced by brain juice, organic pressures driving men and women through predictable behavioral routines.., none of that was known and so it was fucking REAL, man!
God, that was fun!
-Painful and miserable, but also glorious. And that was just love. Not knowing how anything else worked? The aching wish for stupid shit and the knife edge of disappointment? I really enjoyed that! Hell, I also enjoyed the things which DID come true, because there's always some of that if you push hard enough.
It's the knowing which calms it all down and makes things feel less intense. Life is still fun, adventures are still cool to have. And don't get me wrong; Love is wonderful and precious, it transcends the illusion. But hormone-driven passion? Yeah, the juice still flows, but knowing what it is takes the magic out of it. I enjoyed not knowing the difference. I enjoyed learning! So today, I'm a lot less of an idiot and I make a lot fewer mistakes. And somehow that leave a melancholy feeling.
And yet, I drive myself onward even now. I wanna know EVERYTHING. Faster!
This is why we reincarnate, I think. Because the accumulation of knowledge is super-important and fun, but not knowing and flailing around in a genuine passion is also pretty awesome. -Youthful ignorance is not something you can pretend or recreate. And ignorance isn't the Bliss. Ignorance is like a sheet of bubble wrap. The Bliss is having bubbles to pop, and popping them!
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half way to 50 is 25, so if you can't pass for twenties, you're not healthy. Reincarnation is not possible.
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Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
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Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
That's a faith based saying, not a science based one.
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This is why we reincarnate, I think. Because the accumulation of knowledge is super-important and fun, but not knowing and flailing around in a genuine passion is also pretty awesome. -Youthful ignorance is not something you can pretend or recreate. And ignorance isn't the Bliss. Ignorance is like a sheet of bubble wrap. The Bliss is having bubbles to pop, and popping them!
Your first world priviliged blinders are on so tight I think they gave you brain damage. Even today, most of the world's child population isn't living in anything like bliss and are far more concerned with when's the next time they're going to eat as opposed to imagining all the "possibilities".
Historically speaking, it has only been in the last 100 years or so where more than a small fraction of a percent of the populace would call life "fun", regardless of age. For most of human history, almost everyone
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You're talking like an idiot wearing first world blinders.
To agree: The Original Affluent Society (Score:2)
http://www.primitivism.com/ori... [primitivism.com] ...
"Hunter-gatherers consume less energy per capita per year than any other group of human beings. Yet when you come to examine it the original affluent society was none other than the hunter's - in which all the people's material wants were easily satisfied. To accept that hunters are affluent is therefore to recognise that the present human condition of man slaving to bridge the gap between his unlimited wants and his insufficient means is a tragedy of modern times.
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Well that got crazy pretty fast.. Yeah dude, you got ALL THAT going on. You are really trying hard to recreate that "youthful ignorance" with your post there....
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So doctors still bleed people for their health?
I'm not going to judge since donating blood saves lives, I just find the reason a bit odd.
Bah! Youngsters (Score:3)
Terciles (Score:2)
It's a simple matter of terciles and life expectancies. Average life expectancy in the post-industrial world is about 80 years. Dividing that into three equal categories, you get (roughly) 0-26 = young age, 27-53 = middle age, 54-80 = old age. Of course with increases in life expectancy (and to make the math easier), you could use 30-59 as the middle group, and save a bunch of late-20s people the anxiety of already being "middle-aged", but it's still a bit silly how that term has become (in some people's
I'm a much younger 65 than my parents were (Score:3)
It's true. When I look at their activities and their lifestyle when they were 65, I am much more active and act "younger" than they did at this age. This is not just a perception issue on my part. My father would never have plaid SW:TOR with his grandson nor eagerly awaited Dragon Age Inquisition. The bar has moved up for everyone across the board. And yes, I DID retire early at 55. That just gives me more time to level up!
This community is getting older (Score:3)
In a blink of an eye (or so it seems) the polls will ask "At 80, a person is ..."
Me (Score:2)
I turn 40 in eleven days. Definitely starting to feel crusty. I've been in tech long enough now to see ideas come, go, and chime back again.
Looks (Score:2)
So, does 40.003 feel different? It's just a number. I'm going on 52 in a couple of months - yes, it's just a number too.
Do I want to live to be 100? Honestly, I don't care. I want to live a good life - length doesn't matter.
Looking forward to 40 (Score:3)
I'm 35 now, at this point the career and family are established.. now I just sit back and enjoy what I've worked hard on for the past decade.
Other (Score:3, Insightful)
Forty is at your prime (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's my birthday today! (Score:4, Insightful)
And Happy Birthday to nineteen million other people!
Re:It's my birthday today! (Score:5, Informative)
Happy birthday! Mine's today, too, hence the poll ;) 40 feels barely different from 39.995, so far ...
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40 feels barely different from ...
Don't fret ... you still have another good 7 years or so before the decline begins to feel (and look) obvious. :l
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ANYTHING that requires you to get up and out of the house if possible. Preferably sign up for some small responsibility (once a month short presentation to the club).
My father was in a job with forced retirement at age 55 (at the time, since lifted). Too many of his co-workers, seemingly healthy, dropped dead within a few years of retirement. Just "sitting around" with no responsibilities . . . is as much
Re:It's my birthday soon! (Score:5, Insightful)
Mandatory Retirement Jobs (Score:2)
I've known many to retire in their early 40's from the military, but don't know if its mandatory. Air traffic control, federal law enforcement or some military specialties have mandatory upper-limits on age, coded into law. I think that, after 39 yrs old, you can no longer join the military via a recruiter, but must be "pulled in" by justified exception, such as critical expertise. Even that is hard to justify, if the same skill can be had through a civilian contractors, who face no maximum age limits.
So
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Actually, join a group where you spend a lot of time having face-to-face conversations
Is this to help us feel better about death by giving us a terrible reminder that there are fates worse than death?
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I was doing fine until I hit 40. Then my perfect vision went to crap, and I have to wear glasses to read anything.
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On the "glasses seems to make it worse" bit. I got my eyesight tested when I got my license at 18. I ended up with a "needs glasses" in my license since "I'd need them soon anyway".
Today, I still only use them for driving, and even then only when it's dark out. I had a test a year or two back, and tested the same as I did back at 18. They told me I would have had significantly worse vision today had I decided to wear glasses full time back then.
Also, I got back from my 40th birthday dinner half an hour ago.
Re:Slashdot readers are generally dinosaurs (Score:4, Funny)
my friends on IRC agree with you, and we usenet users knew that http shit was just a passing fad
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A woman that hits menopause and doesn't have children is a dead end from an evolutionary perspective. What potential there was for propagating her genes is gone.
Men have a much larger window, and can produce offspring at any age from the first pre-teen ejaculation until death.
Back to the poll, it means that there isn't a single good answer for what 40 means. If you're a childless woman who feels the imperative drive to reproduce, it might mean you're way past middle age and really need to hurry. But if
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Welcome to modern left wing western culture.
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TEN? they couldn't decide after one or two? Their HR dept must've been really digging the bottom of the barrel (from their perspective) or are just clueless. I don't think anyone sane would want to work there. You dodged a bullet.