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Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

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Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#41

Post by scrollaway »

nlh wrote: post #29

I've met two deeply talented software engineering minds in my life, and they fall on opposite ends of the spectrum: The first I met when I was in my mid-20s and he was about 17. Gifted kid, absolutely. He'd published a programming book (!) and could do things with JavaScript that, in 2001, nobody had even thought of doing until the mid 2010s. Totally undisciplined of course -- we hired him and he refused to follow an…

Same story here. The most talented engineers I know are either in their early 20s or in their late 40s/50s.

Of course it's for different reasons. Something many people don't want to admit is that a lot of talent comes from practice and experience, and someone in their 40s is much more likely to have 20+ years of experience than someone in their 20s.

The early-20s geniuses I know are talented for different reasons. The ones I am thinking about are people who pick up new things absurdly quickly; pick up on patterns very easily; have general experience in enough domains to make quick connections; etc. But some of them are extremely undisciplined (which may or may not be related).

Those same people with age, gain not only experience but also hopefully discipline. A combo like that yields you people like John Carmack and the like: Not just talented, but out-of-this-world "next level".

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#42

Post by sgillen »

pxx wrote: post #15
fooddood wrote: post #8

One of the most talented engineers I ever met was 24. He built a 3D engine in JavaScript for fun as well as a raycaster for fun. He also enjoyed challenging himself in all sorts of interesting ways like doing Advent of Code in C++.

What's weird about doing Advent of Code in C++? You'll find a sizable number of the people on the leaderboard do it that way. I think it's partially due to competition programming habits dying extremely hard. Of course, Python is by far the most popular, but C++ isn't that much more verbose.

it depends, I think some people do advent of code did it as sort of race every day, in which case I think C++ would be a pretty big challenge IMO.

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#43

Post by crucialfelix »

oldmancoyote wrote: post #4

I actually haven't met many being a scientific programmer in a science with little need for programming. So, I guess I'm the most talented. I was at my best in my 40's, but at 72 I'm still very good, but slow.

I saw Miles Davis play a few years before he died. His band was all young, playing hard and fast. Miles walks slowly across the stage and plays one mind bending chord on a keyboard and the entire mood changed, totally reconfigured the whole composition. Conservation of energy. Coolest MF ever.

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#46

Post by lincpa »

I think that the ability to measure a person is: "innovation and execution ability" to solve problems. age is not a problem.

I am an ICD (International Classification of Diseases) coder.

Before I was 30, I wrote some foxpro programs, and 1~2K lines VB and C# programs.

After the age of 30, I started using clojure, core.logic (miniKanren) and R, fusion financial analysis, artificial intelligence, statistical knowledge,to write a formal project in my spare time, the financial analysis expert system(https://github.com/linpengcheng/fa), and therefore, based on finance and management, created a software engineering methodology ---- Pure function pipeline data flow (https://github.com/linpengcheng/PurefunctionPipelineDataflow).

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#47

Post by carlmr »

scrollaway wrote: post #41
nlh wrote: post #29

I've met two deeply talented software engineering minds in my life, and they fall on opposite ends of the spectrum: The first I met when I was in my mid-20s and he was about 17. Gifted kid, absolutely. He'd published a programming book (!) and could do things with JavaScript that, in 2001, nobody had even thought of doing until the mid 2010s. Totally undisciplined of course -- we hired him and he refused to follow an…

Same story here. The most talented engineers I know are either in their early 20s or in their late 40s/50s. Of course it's for different reasons. Something many people don't want to admit is that a lot of talent comes from practice and experience, and someone in their 40s is much more likely to have 20+ years of experience than someone in their 20s. The early-20s geniuses I know are talented for different reasons. Th…

>The ones I am thinking about are people who pick up new things absurdly quickly; pick up on patterns very easily; have general experience in enough domains to make quick connections; etc.

That's my experience as well. Generalists are often the most productive people. A good generalist can often grasp the whole system faster than a niche programming language specialist. And you usually don't need those niche programming skills for 99.9% of problems. Humans are capable of much more than the small niches companies put us in.

Generalists are generally (hrhr) ignored by HR though. They don't fit any mold so have a harder time getting hired. The most successful ones I know usually freelance.

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#48

Post by hashhar »

nothanksmydude wrote: post #13

Wisest dude I've ever worked with was >50. Sharpest was probably a friend I grew up with, he was writing C before he was 12! Some mad productive cats from 30-45 too. E: had to come back and say that the best PM's I've worked with have all been >40 year old women who have bigcorp experience. They don't take shit from anyone and protect their people.

I have also seen the same regards to engineering mangers. The best ones have tended to be older women with either bigcorp experience or have been in the current company for a long time. They know how to maximise the developers productivity and do a good job of allowing the dev to focus on work instead of attending stupid meetings and makes sure to fight for your stance when needed.

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#49

Post by nv-vn »

agotterer wrote: post #10

How about this 9 year old speaking at ReactNYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbiryVTIJ4Q edit: removed gender

WOW. What blew me away was not his programming skills, but his ability to explain. There are many levels to understanding, and you can tell that Revel intuitively understands not just how to build things, but also how the code is working on top of that. From the very beginning he speaks so confidently and concisely that you can immediately tell he's a genius. Big contrast to many other "child prodigies" that I've seen.

Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?

#50

Post by Steve44 »

carlmr wrote: post #47
scrollaway wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same story here. The most talented engineers I know are either in their early 20s or in their late 40s/50s. Of course it's for different reasons. Something many people don't want to admit is that a lot of talent comes from practice and experience, and someone in their 40s is much more likely to have 20+ years of experience than someone in their 20s. The early-20s geniuses I know are talented for different reasons. Th…

>The ones I am thinking about are people who pick up new things absurdly quickly; pick up on patterns very easily; have general experience in enough domains to make quick connections; etc. That's my experience as well. Generalists are often the most productive people. A good generalist can often grasp the whole system faster than a niche programming language specialist. And you usually don't need those niche programm…

When I stopped programming I moved more into technical testing and that morphed into 'project guru' on some quite large projects. I could understand from low level network protocols up to the big fluffy clouds, I could also pick things up very quickly as I understood all the building blocks if not the latest buzz words. From my first exposure to SQL I was optimising databases better than the incumbent dba within a couple of months, and that wasn't even my job.

I loved the work, but the downside was no one ever advertised for that role despite it was very important to the project.

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