I wouldn't say, "decline," to be charitable. I tend to lean more on mathematics and writing. That often makes up for the lack of stamina.
When I look back on code I wrote 15, 20 years or more ago... it's fine but it lacks the sophistication I have now. I didn't know what I didn't know back then and had to learn. I can see in my code where I encountered a problem and instead of solving it I added more code until it, "worked."
I wasn't university educated so that's explains a bit of it. I didn't start picking up pure functional programming and formal methods until my mid thirties (gosh, has it been a decade already?). I worked through Harvard's Abstract Algebra at 38. I'm leaning more about writing proofs and proof engineering in my spare time while continuing to stream work in Haskell on various libraries and projects. And I'm in my 40s -- I'm doing more programming and mathematics now than ever.
I'm also playing in a band, practice calisthenics and skateboarding, and have been improving my illustration skills with ink.
It seems like the discovery of the article is that if you don't use your skills they start to decline as early as your late 20s. All it takes is practice to maintain and improve them!
I might get a little tired every now and then and can't keep every library I've used in my head all at once. But I tend to rely more on mathematics and specifications and writing. I write less code now. I remove code. And I keep programs and systems fast and correct.
I suspect you are better at architecture now than you were 15-20 years ago, such that you don’t have to struggle over how to solve many complex problems. The solutions and their planning are likely fluid now and quickly envisioned. That is something to comes from years of practice problem solving.
Not everyone has that though, even among people who claim to be well experienced. If those among us are aging and never fully developed the skills to save on manual effort they will likely appear as if in decline. Others that continue to find news ways to deliver higher quality at ever decreasing costs will continue to demonstrate superior value.
> All it takes is practice to maintain and improve them!
That is largely true for anything in that maintenance costs less than recovery and maintenance costs more than original solution delivery for someone well practiced at delivering original solutions. Not everyone invests in the practice to do this though.
I wouldn't say, "decline," to be charitable. I tend to lean more on mathematics and writing. That often makes up for the lack of stamina.
When I look back on code I wrote 15, 20 years or more ago... it's fine but it lacks the sophistication I have now. I didn't know what I didn't know back then and had to learn. I can see in my code where I encountered a problem and instead of solving it I added more code until it, "worked."
I wasn't university educated so that's explains a bit of it. I didn't start picking up pure functional programming and formal methods until my mid thirties (gosh, has it been a decade already?). I worked through Harvard's Abstract Algebra at 38. I'm leaning more about writing proofs and proof engineering in my spare time while continuing to stream work in Haskell on various libraries and projects. And I'm in my 40s -- I'm doing more programming and mathematics now than ever.
I'm also playing in a band, practice calisthenics and skateboarding, and have been improving my illustration skills with ink.
It seems like the discovery of the article is that if you don't use your skills they start to decline as early as your late 20s. All it takes is practice to maintain and improve them!
I might get a little tired every now and then and can't keep every library I've used in my head all at once. But I tend to rely more on mathematics and specifications and writing. I write less code now. I remove code. And I keep programs and systems fast and correct.
Nothing declining here!