Do you feel like you get stupider the older you get?

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These are some of the things I used to do a lot less effortlessly:

*Process new information
*Retain new information
*Do basic arithmetic (adding/multiplying numbers in my head, etc)
*Do basic logic (if A implies B and B implies C and D, does A imply D?)

I feel I get stupider, not more intelligent, the older I get.

Does anyone feel the same way?

Last edited by Mw99 on 17 Nov 2007, 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Are you out of school? It could be that you are just using your brain less. I know what you mean. I have a degree in math, but I've been out of school for so long, I can barely remember basic algebra.

Yes

It may be that you are applying your mental abilities elsewhere instead

Yeah, unfortunately. I never got quite as bad as you implied, and I am working towards improving things. Anyway, I learned most of what I know about computer software after I turned 17, and am usually seen as being very knowledgable. I learned most of what I know about languages, after 20. I do OK with 5, and am working on yet another.

the older i get the stupider other people get!

I meant to say that also! I may have felt like I was getting dumber, but that certainly doesn't mean others arent also.

Yes I have problems retaining new information and doing math (complex math)
I was a 4.0 gpa student in High School and in college my average was about 2.5.

I don't have any problems with logic or interpreting poetry, lit, art etc.

What type of math do you call "complex math"?

Yes.

For me, it isn't academic or work-related tasks. I did well in school and perform my job well. As stated in an earlier post, I feel absolutely ret*d when performing simple tasks. It's become dramatically worse just this week alone.

Perhaps it's because when we were younger we had much more optimistic assessments of our actual abilities in the above, and over the years our understanding of how good we really are becomes more truthfully evident.


Merle

Last edited by sinsboldly on 18 Nov 2007, 2:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

I had a much better memory when I was much younger, I was not tired all the time (not at all, actually), I never got painfully ill, I was better at sports and in shape, I ate better, I was better at making friends, not shy, more friendly, extroverted, not as easily embarrassed, happy, expressed my needs better because they weren't complicated, and was more alert and paid MUCH better attention!

I have to watch my hygene both personal and around the house. I can forget to sanitize the bath or leave the dishes in the sink too long. The sheer habit of a schedule of what I must do to keep my balance maintaining in the physical world is how I keep afloat. I go in and out of what I can handle and what I can remember, too. It's like that optical test of the dancer twirling, which way is she going, right or left, and for me she goes one way and the other randomly. I don't have a lot of conviction in what I perceive being actually what is happening.

Is this what you mean?

Merle

Well, when I was real young, a lot of kids were asking me for help in their school work, and I went through everything pretty fast. Even when I didn't know the answer, I seemed to have the uncanny ability to recognize it. I could estimate my grade with pretty good accuracy. The workbook stuff was such that I could have turned it in MONTHS early! People said I was articulate, I used bigger words, I even spelled better. When I was younger I was a perfectionist, knew PRECISELY where I learned something, and wanted to know just about everything about what I knew. It was a lot like the electronics I bought. I looked at the schematics and thought of them as puzzles! WHY did they add this resistor? WHY did they add that capacitor? Where is the tank circuit(for radios)? etc...

So how is it today? Well, the last time I really looked at a schematic for something I bought was in 1981! I am certainly no perfectionist. My spelling is poorer. I dumbed down my speech a bit. I don't know where I learned much of what I know. The last time it seemed like every kid asked me for help was when I was still in grade school. Of course, in my JOB EVERYONE asks me for help, etc... but that was an interest, and my WORST day is still better than most others best days.

As far as intelligence? I was better with some abstract reasoning based on patterns, etc... when I was younger. I DO know more now. Just electronic, slang, improper usage, and computer words are substantial. Don't even get me started on German, Danish, Spanish, French, and Hindi I learned. I know a LOT more about computers, but forgot some things about electronics.

Still, relative to where I feel I should be, and on things that IQ tests check, relative to my age group, I HAVE gotten a bit dumber. My only solace is that a lot of people do FAR WORSE!

BTW I have never been "cocksure". Heck, I have seen computers do odd things with basic math(USUALLY due to the rounding problems of standard binary math, or truncation by incorrectly selected work areas, so I usually understand why.), and similar things. A simple change can cause things to change quite a bit. I always try to qualify things. My speech is usually like the last statement, or even this one. Note how I generally say "try","usually","generally"!

I have rarely been "FULL of doubt". I usually have reason to believe SOMETHING. Those that know me know I HATE words like EXPERT, GURU, etc... HECK, I LIKE IT when they call me a genius, etc... but I often even try to avoid THAT.

From way old, two things,

My first problem was I knew I had a high IQ, they tested strange children,

But it took me the longest time to understand that others did not. It seems simple now.

It took ten years, and then someone telling me, back then.

It does seem we decline with age, but it is not so,

we just come to understand how dumb we have been all our lives.

Intelligence is not smarts, and it can blind you to smarts.

low IQ people are much smarter, they have to be to survive.

I have learned many advanced skills, got high rating for them, and have never used them since.

True skills, like changing the oil in the car on time, I still struggle with.

Intelligence and education block out the simple and most needed parts of being a human.

I do feel as I get older I eather dont keep up with being able to learn as I once was able too. Growing up was a huge time of learning and I feel that has slowed. Mostly because of the current demands I must meet for dealing with the modern world. I no longer have time to follow my passions as much such as being outdoors and reading up on some things I enjoy learning about. I use my brain less sence I have been out of school. I am far more lazyer now then ever, and I accept thats just how things are sometimes, I am happy, and have plenty of time to myself, so I dont feel it nessissary to change anyrthing ATM.