I think what we have to deal with is not just cognitive decline, but more importantly cognitive overload. People in their 40s usually juggle lots of responsibilities, especially if they have a family. At this age you normally also have earned some money, and if you start buying things like a summer house or an apartment for renting out, those things come with maintenance tasks. This can accumulate quickly.
Whatever the reasons are, my approach was to get used to it and work differently. I am terrible at doing multiple things at a time and my short-term memory is bad, so I learned to concentrate on one task at a time and eliminate distractions. I buy large monitors, so that I can have multiple things on the screen at the same time and avoid having to remember (I can easily forget an IP address when switching windows!). I spend money on Apple hardware, because of 5K displays: 5K makes a huge difference, because I can comfortably have THREE columns of code in my fullscreen Emacs instead of two. That means I often have 5 different pieces of code visible, which does wonders for things like APIs, which you mentioned — I can follow the entire path of a call and keep it all on screen.
I also noticed that there are positives that come with age and experience! I find that I'm much better at seeing the "big picture", analytical thinking, design, and predicting potential problems. Most importantly, I'm now much better at knowing what not to do. These skills are invaluable when running your own business.
> if you start buying things like a summer house or an apartment for renting out, those things come with maintenance tasks. This can accumulate quickly.
This is a really good point. I feel like I'm dealing with way more responsibilities now that I have a house and a family, I'm no longer the center of my own universe.
I think what we have to deal with is not just cognitive decline, but more importantly cognitive overload. People in their 40s usually juggle lots of responsibilities, especially if they have a family. At this age you normally also have earned some money, and if you start buying things like a summer house or an apartment for renting out, those things come with maintenance tasks. This can accumulate quickly.
Whatever the reasons are, my approach was to get used to it and work differently. I am terrible at doing multiple things at a time and my short-term memory is bad, so I learned to concentrate on one task at a time and eliminate distractions. I buy large monitors, so that I can have multiple things on the screen at the same time and avoid having to remember (I can easily forget an IP address when switching windows!). I spend money on Apple hardware, because of 5K displays: 5K makes a huge difference, because I can comfortably have THREE columns of code in my fullscreen Emacs instead of two. That means I often have 5 different pieces of code visible, which does wonders for things like APIs, which you mentioned — I can follow the entire path of a call and keep it all on screen.
I also noticed that there are positives that come with age and experience! I find that I'm much better at seeing the "big picture", analytical thinking, design, and predicting potential problems. Most importantly, I'm now much better at knowing what not to do. These skills are invaluable when running your own business.