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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   989 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 18, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I just turned 25 today, since I have some time and it's a quarter of a century, ama. I hope this isn't seen poorly lol. But I'm quite happy to have seen this milestone.

Happy birthday!

At the age of 25, you're at your physical and cognitive peak, and it's all downhill from here. Your mind slows down, though your productivity is kept up by knowledge/wisdom compensating for decreased fluid intelligence. Your body slows down, becomes weaker and frailer, but this can be temporarily alleviated with exercise and a fastidious attitude towards your health.

Don't worry, it doesn't become obvious until about a decade later. The initial slope of the decline is gentle, you can make a good picnic on that plateau.

At the age of 25, you're at your physical and cognitive peak, and it's all downhill from here.

I really have to wonder how much of this is people just not taking care of themselves. Personally I'd probably put my physical peak around 32 when I was fighting fit and winning tournaments. But that might have been an artifact of not really having proper training or nutrition until my late 20's. It's more difficult to assess my mental peak, or separate alacrity of though from wisdom, since wisdom provides so many shortcuts. I will say, when I was pre-diabetic I thought my mental acuity was falling off and I was just aging. Then my doctor caught it, I cut out a ton of sugar and snacking, started intermittent fasting, and now I'm right as rain again in my 40's.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you peaked at 25, maybe see a doctor, nutritionist or trainer?

I really have to wonder how much of this is people just not taking care of themselves.

For people complaining on the internet, it's mostly this. All sorts of complaints about random aches and pains and injuring themselves in their 30s that bears no resemblance to my experience.

Personally I'd probably put my physical peak around 32 when I was fighting fit and winning tournaments.

Interesting choice. For longer-distance endurance races, men's performance seems to peak around age 33. I would expect an earlier peak for more explosive/fast-twitch dominated events.

For longer-distance endurance races, men's performance seems to peak around age 33. I would expect an earlier peak for more explosive/fast-twitch dominated events.

Depends heavily on the sport, the individual, and the degree of chemical assistance available.

But I also think high-level athletic research (while still being the only really valid research on the topic) is going to be biased towards people who peak earlier. To become elite at most high end sports, you have to be an elite youth-level competitor by the time you're 20 at the latest. And the flipside to this is that the mileage on the body and the injuries start accumulating earlier. We don't actually have much of a model for what happens if someone starts competing seriously at 25, because to get to the point where they're competing seriously at 25 most people have been competing seriously at 18. A tommy john surgery, or a blown out knee, or accumulating concussions, are going to get you started on your decline even if your athletic peak was still ahead of you.

UFC champions, who have tended to start out in MMA later as they train something different-but-related before switching to MMA professionally, average 33, and fighters typically begin their decline at 34. MLB players peak between 27 and 30, but that curve has moved up a few years after the beginning of steroid testing. MMA is notably poor on testing compared to the other major pro sports, and the individual sports are generally more poorly tested than the major professional team sports where the league has some degree of physical control over the players. Soccer players peak at 27 on average, but speedy wingers peak earlier and decline faster than burly centerbacks. NFL running backs decline almost immediately, while offensive linemen can often stick it out well into their 30s.

All that being said, I'm in the best shape of my life right now, this year, at 33. But I don't disagree with @self_made_human about 25 either: at 25 I had more potential, I could be anything, even if at 33 I currently am more. Athletically, at 25 I could still have runway to develop skills that, at this point, I won't reach. My hair was thicker, I could sleep off a hangover easier, I could eat bad food and worry about it less. I was in my last year of grad school, which is the peak of a certain kind of status for many people: you've accomplished a lot so you have something to stand on when you boast, but you haven't found your level in the professional world yet, so you can talk all the shit you want about what you might do. 25 was a very good year

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