Ask HN: What happens to older developers? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#91

Post by wildpeaks » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

chrismaeda wrote: post #68

eshvk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, brilliantly cogent post. I am getting to the stage where the latest fancy framework doesn't really seem as much of a win but more meta-bullshit to deal with. > The problem for some people is that these kinds of more generalized roles put you in charge of systems that do not have the sort of clear-cut deterministic behavior you remember from your programming days. Can you expand a bit on this? What do you m…

In the more generalized roles, you deal with parallel systems made up of unreliable carbon-based computing elements. You can't just feed them electricity and order them to execute programs. You have to charm, cajole, and/or threaten them at the right time in order to get them to produce the desired outputs. This requires some amount of patience and wisdom to do well.

They're also harder to debug because you can't inspect their call stack and they might even block their I/O ports if you send the wrong command, which varies between systems.

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#92

Post by bkurtz13 » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:26 PM UTC

They merge into the global repository, becoming part of the source code of the universe.

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#93

Post by microjesus » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:29 PM UTC

Fantastic points, I've been thinking about these recently as someone close to mid-thirties. I've been learning hardware development and low level hardware software design over the past year as I saw myself either needing management, a new industry or ... death. I find it strange and almost awkward to work on projects recently with cocky 21 year old versions of myself.

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#94

Post by mml » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:32 PM UTC

Anecdata:

My father is nearly 70, and still writes & maintains those horrible departmental VB+Access apps. He started in his late 40s, having noodled around with spreadsheets & databases since the 80s (from whence my fascination with this stuff stems).

Sadly, the world of VB & Access is so alien from my own that we can't even talk shop.

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#95

Post by gcb0 » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:42 PM UTC

compay wrote: post #24

I'm 41. I also worry about ageism but so far I don't feel that it has affected me yet. > Do you have to go into management to continue progressing upwards in pay and influence? I know this isn't the case at some companies (e.g. Google), but is it rare or common to progress as an individual contributor? That has not been the case for me. I'm currently doing software development for a startup - the same thing I've done…

> For me, so far no. I'm currently making the highest salary I've made yet in my career. I've been here for a year and a half.

all in all from that i can take you have been always paid the current market salary, hence later years equals the highest paying.

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#96

Post by nickthemagicman » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

What about someone just starting out in programming at 35? Is it a bad idea?

:)

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#97

Post by Ihmahr » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

noblethrasher wrote: post #71

thebooktocome wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an easy solution to that problem: have two older developers take each other as references....

Don't most garbage collectors use tracing?

Only the younger ones...

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#98

Post by angersock » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:47 PM UTC

thebooktocome wrote: post #26

psychotik wrote: post #3

Older developers get garbage collected

There's an easy solution to that problem: have two older developers take each other as references....

That's what's known as "forming a consultancy".

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#99

Post by sharemywin » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:51 PM UTC

I think in the midwest you have a lot of banks and insurance companies and alot of programmers still using cobol. I know at my company we should finally get all the way off the mainframe in about 8 years not because it's better or cheaper but because no one will be left that knows hot to use it. I code in gosu which is specific to a product in the P&C insurance industry I see the company staying with that product for another 10+ years.

Re: Ask HN: What happens to older developers?

#100

Post by api » Mon, Mar 10, 2014, 4:53 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #29

It seems that they go a few directions: The most common seems to be to try and generalize, because relearning most of your job skills every few years starts to get annoying the 20th time you've had to do it. It's different when you are younger and everything is new, you just chalk up a major tooling change as just something else to learn. But when the next hot platform or architecture or whatever comes out you get ti…

"to cut through trendy BS to build solid performant stuff."

This is really the gem for those who don't want to take the MGMT route. But the tough thing is advancing in your pay-scale, etc., and really showing that your skills are really that much better than the young people who cost less.