The benefits of taking on new challenges in middle age Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Photograph: Allstar/Miramax Although his previous attempt at a career break, by becoming an apprentice shoemaker in Florence, didn’t last long, it seems Daniel Day-Lewis is serious about retiring this time. Maybe he’s looking for a new challenge. As we get older, work can feel more routine and easy, which is born out in terms of brain activity. Scans show tasks we are practiced at often use less energy than novel activities – we tend to do them more efficiently, and the mental energy required decreases. We’re all familiar with this as our careers advance. We also get more skilled at spotting our mistakes and rectifying them; as an old hand, you can notice when the edge has gone but you have enough tricks in the bag to make amends. This ‘neuroprotective’ effect may be behind some of the results that show an apparent delay in symptoms of age-related cognitive decline for those more active in middle age. In this light a preemptive move, like Day-Lewis’s, may be more sensible as we become over familiar with what we do. It is perhaps typical of this most uncompromising of actors that he’s quitting while ahead. lthough his previous attempt at a career break, by becoming an apprentice shoemaker in Florence, didn’t last long, it seems Daniel Day-Lewis is serious about retiring this time. Maybe he’s looking for a new challenge. As we get older, work can feel more routine and easy, which is born out in terms of brain activity. Scans show tasks we are practised at often use less energy than novel activities – we tend to do them more efficiently, and the mental energy required decreases. We’re all familiar with this as our careers advance. We also get more skilled at spotting our mistakes and rectifying them; as an old hand, you can notice when the edge has gone but you have enough tricks in the bag to make amends. This ‘neuroprotective’ effect may be behind some of the results that show an apparent delay in symptoms of age-related cognitive decline for those more active in middle age. In this light a preemptive move, like Day-Lewis’s, may be more sensible as we become over familiar with what we do. It is perhaps typical of this most uncompromising of actors that he’s quitting while ahead. Dr Daniel Glaser is director of Science Gallery at King’s College London taken from:
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February 2020
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