Ask HN: Is 36 too old to (re)start a career in tech?

Lots of people feel that way, but that feeling is an inaccurate representation of reality.

Someone at 36 has at least 2x more work ahead of them than behind them.

They do need to pick their work and projects carefully. Thirties is when it is fair to expect that someone knows their own self to a degree, has some basis for understanding the perspectives of others, is responsible about commitments, knows to a degree what they know/can do and don't know/shouldn't do, when working with others. In short, an adult.

An adult tackling a problem in a responsible way is how things in the world actually get done. Welcome! You are now in that club.

There are many lucky savant children in the world, who are good at one thing and idiots at many, and for whom drama is a way of life. One of the joys of working with adults is just not having the drama, staying focused on the issue at hand.

Those trajectory tropes are just fairy tale narratives crafted by publicists to instill a sense of awe and reverence, just like you fell for. Zuckerberg is the closest we have to a failed example of this, only because he's been under the spotlight since he was a teen. Do you think if you'd grown up with Altman, had to listen to him chew or watched him struggle to fit in with his classmates, he would still glow with such heavenly light in your eyes?

Many of my clients didn't pick up steam for their biggest projects until they were in their 50s, 60s, or even 70s, because that just happened to be the age that they started feeling like they had to start working towards them.

Put differently, you're going to turn 37 whether or or not you try, so wouldn't you rather be older and at least have tried doing tech?

Potential is worthless, otherwise we'd be ruled by burned out child geniuses.

The irony of that advice from a user with that username is comedic gold! Thank you for that. It made my day.

First. Don't read too many of other people's opinions. Or I better say, follow your own path!

I knew a guy in late 90' who worked in a factory floor. He started tinkering with computers trying to fix them, install software. He had no idea what he's doing at the beginning. He was 40 years old. In the coming years he became a tech wiz. Moved from factory floor to QA camera assembly and programming and on the side had a computer repair business. He started programming on the side as well and became pretty good at it. Real problem-solver guy. The kind of person you want if you're building something no matter hardware or software or both.

To answer your question: No, it's not to late!

Realistically, at 36, you're too old to start in pro sports and no military is going to take you unless it's extremely desperate times or you're an MD. That's about it as far as being strictly limited. I didn't start in software until I was 34 and it didn't present any barriers I could see. Chances are you have a much more demanding life and possibly other people depending on you compared to when you were 20, but on the other hand, I also wanted to party, travel, experiment with drugs, date and have sex as much as possible, when I was 20, and had gotten that all out of my system by my mid-30s and I was ready to just hunker down and work.

Why do you even care what Sam Altman and Paul Graham think? What's your goal here? There's a world of difference in how much you need to impress someone to have a stable, rewarding career earning four times the median salary of any other industry that isn't finance or pro entertainment performer compared to trying to convince a VC firm they should give you 9 figures so you can hire a few hundred other people and expand your own business globally.