I wonder if you got any health issues related to your profession? What do you do to keep yourself in shape physically and mentally? Congratulations on your success.
Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
201–210 of 555 posts
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#202Wow! I appreciate all the interest and feedback - quite unexpected. I'm glad I found HN. I'll try to add more responses tomorrow.
(I'm a moderator here. Welcome to HN!) Because you're likely to get a flood of comments and questions overnight, I've switched an alpha feature on for your account that will highlight new comments that have appeared since you last viewed the page. They'll show up with a colored bar to the left of the comment. The feature doesn't work perfectly yet, but hopefully it'll help you keep track of what's been posted since y…
Have you considered implementing accessibility for this feature before it goes live for all? Screen reader users cannot see colored bars, and need a different indication of the fact a comment is new. I can give suggestions if needed.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#203@genedangelo As a programmer, do you feel pressure with time passage?
Have you felt any problem with memory or speed of thinking, have you ever thought about how it was in certain stages of your life from the perspective of abilities to do things?
No disrespect, after only 20 years (third of your time) sometimes I feel that it was much easier to solve things in the beginning, so sometimes I am kind of worried what will happen if I ever live to that age. Generally I am interested how does cognitive ability changes with age.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#204Every single person who calls you “inspirational” or “impressive” is actually revealing their own age prejudice. A programmer still programming while growing old is not something to marvel at, it is the normal state of things. Please do not allow people to put you on a pedestal; this would only strengthen the age prejudice present in the industry.
Note: You deserve considerable respect and deference for the experience and skill you have no doubt acquired over the years. Also, since there are so few people like you who started programming in those years, you are an unusual and notable person. But don’t let anyone insinuate that it would have been normal for you to have stopped programming by now. It is not.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#205Knuth was being paid by Burroughs to implement an Algol-58 compiler in 1960. He’s still programming, and seems to have advice for others on the subject. But I don’t expect to see him here. Congratulations on being in that company, and may it long continue.
Partly cribbed from my comment downthread: I think I'd classify Knuth as the slightly different "longest working computer scientist". He's known for his quote "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." Or perhaps I'd classify him as the somewhat more sycophantic "longest working genius" or "longest working cool guy". Heck, Knuth was uniquely awarded a master's degree for his bach…
To be honest, it's a bit weird to judge a man on the basis of a joke he made over 40 years ago.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#206Every single person who calls you “inspirational” or “impressive” is actually revealing their own age prejudice. A programmer still programming while growing old is not something to marvel at, it is the normal state of things . Please do not allow people to put you on a pedestal; this would only strengthen the age prejudice present in the industry. Note: You deserve considerable respect and deference for the experien…
The current crop of coders is not going to age well
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#207RESPEK
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#208Every single person who calls you “inspirational” or “impressive” is actually revealing their own age prejudice. A programmer still programming while growing old is not something to marvel at, it is the normal state of things . Please do not allow people to put you on a pedestal; this would only strengthen the age prejudice present in the industry. Note: You deserve considerable respect and deference for the experien…
The current crop of coders is not going to age well
Why?
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#209Every single person who calls you “inspirational” or “impressive” is actually revealing their own age prejudice. A programmer still programming while growing old is not something to marvel at, it is the normal state of things . Please do not allow people to put you on a pedestal; this would only strengthen the age prejudice present in the industry. Note: You deserve considerable respect and deference for the experien…
This comment is emblematic of the confusing times we are in. You cannot say anything - even "congratulations" - without stepping on someone's toes. Every assumption undoubtedly reveals some sort of partiality, privilege and discrimination. There are so many assumptions from which we must extricate ourselves that we are effectively prohibited from saying anything.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Partly cribbed from my comment downthread: I think I'd classify Knuth as the slightly different "longest working computer scientist". He's known for his quote "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." Or perhaps I'd classify him as the somewhat more sycophantic "longest working genius" or "longest working cool guy". Heck, Knuth was uniquely awarded a master's degree for his bach…
That's the way he likes to paint himself. From a lecture he gave at my university I remember that he said something along the lines of, that he usually came up with the idea and others wrote the code. From the experience out of the same lecture, however, I can tell you first hand that he knows his way around code and that he can code. The lecture was indeed more of a hands on workshop with Knuth spending most of the…
Just because he can code doesn't mean he does on a daily basis for a day job, which is what this ask hn post is about no?