Come on man, let me give you a hug. You seem to need it. Do you feel better now?
Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
21–30 of 137 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#22Acceptance.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#23Get off my lawn!
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#24Generally I wrinkle slightly more each year, moan about my joints seizing up and grow more cynical.
On a more serious note I am becoming better at what I do because I understand much more of pretty much everything in far greater depth than I used to. And while I perhaps don't have the stamina or raw LoC output ability of a 21 year old any more, I can usually achieve tasks much faster because I know what I'm doing and I make fewer mistakes.
I'm definitely much more cynical about flavour of the week languages and frameworks though. And I find it very funny that things get reinvented every few years as a new generation decides some thing is too cumbersome (often SQL or DMBSs) and needs to be thrown out, only to be slowly reinvented as all the edge cases that lead to the abstraction are discovered...
And I'm only 36.
Career-wise, no discrimination noticed yet.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#25Your comment seems to bridge two things: hacking life and staying relevant in technology. For the former, I'm 42 and doing just fine. I try to keep up with the latest trends though I don't buy into everything just to keep my sanity. I write as much code as I can. I've learned though that someone who listens with empathy and attempts to understand a business' problems will always be relevant.
For the former, I read a lot on diet, nutrition and exercise. I believe in 50 years, we will look back at the time when our diets were largely based on sugary carbohydrates and wonder what the hell we were thinking. I experiment with fasting. I do different kinds of exercises. We don't have total control over our health but so many of us make regular poor decisions that even tiny improvements have to help. Of course, I could walk out in front of a bus tomorrow but attempting to improve each day goes a long way.
From a health perspective, I subscribe to Nassim Taleb's idea of reduction instead of addition. High cholesterol? Don't start taking statins, start eliminating things like sugar and processed carbs and wheat. High blood pressure? Don't add blood pressure medicine, try exercising regularly, don't smoke, eat vegetables. Etc, etc.
Long story longer, if all you do technology and health wise is exactly what everyone else has always done or always told you to do, you'll get what everyone else has always gotten. True, experimenting and hacking may not help at all but there is plenty of evidence out there that walking a different path can get you different results.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#26> As hackers, do you feel like you can hack life and get more years out of it then the average joe?
Hackers we'll die earlier, obese and with mobility problems, and probably sitting, while trying to hack "life". :)
I'm not a big fan of the whole "hack life" mentality. We aren't used to deal with complex systems, such as organisms or life. Despite the echo chamber we live in, the systems we deal with are simple; way simpler than life, and deterministic. Every time we think we "hacked life", we're just ignoring the complexity of the problem at hand (just think about the "hack nutrition" ideas around...).
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#27It's inevitable. Why worry about it?
There's nothing about age that prevents you from understanding or coming up with the next big thing. Keep your mind open and eyes open for stuff that's happening in whatever field you're interested.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#28Avoid cultures that hail 20 year olds dreaming up the next big thing. Outside of a few (toxic) pockets, those cultures are in the minority in my experience.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#29I'm 25 and feels lost in a culture that hails 20 year olds that are dreaming up the next big thing. I don't think age is the important thing here, I have worked with people of all ages (15-70 or so) that I look up to and learned a lot from. Experience is important, and it is hard to have experienced a lot of things if you are 20. On a semi-related note, all my best bosses have been parents, having kids seem to teach…
>> On a semi-related note, all my best bosses have been parents, having kids seem to teach you something about the value of time.
I once talked to an old (60) guy who was writing code down the aisle from me. He said he tried management, but didn't want to mediate disputes between children - he had his own at home. I thought his experience was probably unusual, but I've asked a number of managers since then, and they all agree that's an unfortunately large part of the job. I don't see it because they keep it away from the team - as it should be. But then when I got my first crack at "having a small team" I saw exactly the same thing. So yes, tech skills are important but parenting can also be a relevant background ;-)
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with getting older?
#30Old age is the single most surprising thing that happens to a person.
But I don't think getting hailed is the driver for success. What you accomplish is a lot more important. And age definitely does not prevent that.