This is the question asked by John Cook on Twitter. He lists responses from different people:
- R
- Version control
- Linear algebra
- Advanced math
- Bayesian statistics
- Category theory
- Foreign languages
- How to not waste time
- Women
Mine are: quantum mechanics, Python, cooking, the language of philosophy.
What learning curve do you wish you'd climbed sooner? Give reasons and stories if you feel like it. Do you think other people should climb the same curves?
As far as aging goes, Aubrey de Grey lists aging as being about a bunch of factors. He proposes if we fix those factors through techniques like gene therapy we can get 1000 years old.
Aubrey de Grey's list misses "bad movement habits" or as Thomas Hanna calls it Sensory-Motor Amnesia (SMA). I think it's important for the discourse about fighting aging to understand that Grey's list isn't complete.
One thing I'd add to the list of Aging factors is a generalization on the unnecessary tension and lack of sensation noted by somatic practitioners - feedback loops and signal transduction pathways pegged into insensitive operating points.
Some signal gets too large, which tamps some sensitivity down, when then leads to positive feedback making the original signal even larger. Hormones, neurotransmitters, muscle actuation/sensing. System compensation helps in the short run, but they lead to getting trapped at suboptimal operating points that are local minima, that require some "kick" to get you out.