i feel like as i age, i'm losing raw mental power but gaining the ability to not pretend to myself that i understand concepts i don't actually, which kinda feels like it's balancing out?
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like, i think i used to have a lower threshhold for feeling like i grasped a concept; it would sorta tie into things i understood already and i'd say 'okay i got it' and move on; recently it feels like my threshhold is raising, like i notice my gaps much more
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This is my experience.
In late 30s early 40ish you come to terms with only grasping a couple of things really well and begin actively tuning things out: 'I aint gonna learn it'
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How would you disentangle the "decreasing cognitive power" hypothesis from the alternative possibility that you've already understood most of the low-hanging fruit, leaving a higher average effort required per new, as yet unlearned concept?
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Matches my experience. As your world picture gets more complete you begin to wade into subtler waters
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Makes sense to me. As you age and gain knowledge+wisdom, unknown unknowns become known unknowns
