I feel like my programming career gets better and better with age - I really have not felt the discrimination that others have (or worry about). I just keep on keeping on and make it a focus to spend 5-10 hours a week improving my skills and staying current.
Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
11–20 of 137 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#12I'm working on a time machine. This is how I'm dealing with it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#13I'm 34 and I believe I'm dreaming up the next big thing.
Many entrepreneurs become succesful at an older age... the famous Coronel Sanders became succesful in his 60s !!
In the tech field, Jeff Bezos started Amazon in his 30s.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#14"Hack life"...please, just stop with this. Can we coin a new phrase?
"live to the fullest"
or maybe just..."live"
so often it seems like we're so preoccupied with 'hacking' our lives that we forget to live them at all...
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#15I am less driven by the prospect of becoming an old expensive programmer, and more concerned about missing out on gaining management experience. I have conversed with many programmers who express concern that they have no management aspirations, and yet the longer they remain pure programmers, they find they have fewer options as they age, instead, as one might imagine, more.
Maybe it's because it's harder to convince a 40-year old programmer to work bullshit hours for a few slices of free pizza.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#1640 year olds today were the first generation to grow up with computers. 10 years ago, 40 year olds were "old" in computer parlance. The myth of the 20 year old hacker will go away over time, as more and more people grow up immersed in technology (and thus possess the necessary skillset).
I would even go so far as to say that our culture's preoccupation with youth presents an opportunity for disruptive ideas/startups, based in "wisdom and experience."
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#17That cultural description is only true in so far as you believe it.
Yes. By definition, hackers are not bound by rules others impose on them, and I don't think a person's age necessarily makes any difference to having that mentality. Although age affects people in other ways. As people mature, priorities shift, and this can affect how a person perceives the world or their place in society, and this in turn could affect a person's willingness to push the boundaries.
So there's definitely a bias towards people who are younger and have less to lose, but it's not like any hard limits exist.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#18[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#19There's an (spanish) old saying that goes: The devil knows more because he's old than he does because he's the devil. (Or Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo.) HTH.
Should we aspire then to be as successful as the distinguished His Excellency Lord Satan?
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#20Why do you have to be 20 to be doing something interesting? Also why is it assumed that every new innovation that some 20 year old ivy league drop comes up with is good for our society and our culture? To me most start ups are just superfluous, these apps and such are created just to make our lives slightly more convenient in most cases, they rarely improve the human condition or outlook. Go ahead and glorify the startup culture but I have more respect for the grizzled old devs that have created the foundation we stand on today and the people moving things forward incrementally.