As the young team lead on a team composed of mostly older programmers, I say older programmers pay off. I'm quite happy with their experience. Much less explaining to do. And they know to investigate the hairy bits.
Ageism is becoming an issue for me
51–60 of 72 posts
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#52I don't think it's the age, but Winer is out of touch on a lot of issues. His primary computing time is in a scripting language / environment that he built in the early 90s. Much like RMS, he has missed the train and while still has important ideas is frequently only able to implement them in a way that few others can experience. That and his new found mobile passion is just hilarious to witness. Confused about SMS a…
Yeah, it's not that people think he's clueless because he's old. People think he's clueless because he's clueless, and has been writing posts that makes no sense with increasing frequency. This feels like an excuse.
It actually seems more polite to say "Dave doesn't grok new tech because he's getting old" than to say "Dave refuses to grok new tech".
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#53The world is different for everyone.
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#54Inside I think of myself as young. If you really did, then you wouldn't have even written this post. Like Dave Winer, I am also 54 and absolutely do not care what anyone else thinks about it. When I first started out I quickly rose through the enterprise ranks and was never taken seriously because of my age. As a wimpy looking nerd, I had always been underestimated by others and I found a way to use that to my advant…
> "I think being in IT and in my 50's is a tremendous advantage." I believe you, but can't help but wonder if you find that potential employers see it this way as well? Some companies (Facebook comes to mind..) are reluctant to even hire people in their 30s, as they are not as receptive to "free pizza/code till 10pm" working style. Once you've reached the kids & mortgage stage, unless you're a genius or an executive,…
That's definitely true. I see that as corporate culture though: if your culture is such that you work all the time, then we aren't a good fit for each other. I like spending time with my family.
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
This would tend to confirm the "ageism" that Weiner is talking about. If a young body and mind is a good thing, an old body and mind is not. I guess the "Ageist" position is that yes, human bodies and brains do decay, but experience and wisdom precisely mitigate this. It seems a little absurd.
I think the ageist position is that experience and wisdom aren't enough to counteract the brain's decline as one ages. So really this is an argument about two things: 1. The rate of cognitive decline and 2. the value of experience. The former varies with each individual and can be mitigated with proper nutrition and exercise. The latter varies depending on the task. Oh, and in case anyone disputes that cognitive abil…
This is true but we're a lot closer to isolating the nutrients that support memory and delay aging. You can also play "brain games" to stimulate neural activity and develop better memory recall, even with people over 50.
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#56If you scroll down in the comments to where Lenni posted, and then read that thread, he doesn't seem to realize that ageism works both ways, and in fact holds a few ageist prejudices of his own regarding younger people.
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#57"I've been seeing a lot more ageism lately.
By ageism, I mean people saying that my age makes me less intelligent, informed, clued, aware, whatever."
Having kids will do that, at least once they get to be 10 or 12.
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#58Take a look at jazz history if you want to see ageism (and every other -ism, for better or worse) cycle again and again. In the 20's and 30's, the older generation said it was sinful and immoral and why couldn't these kids just go back to good ol' ragtime. (Answer: they just needed to be different but they'd come to their senses sooner or later and enjoy music with real emotion behind it)
Then in the 40's, as bebop began, the older generation said the same thing, except those in the older generation were the ones who had been criticized for playing jazz (ex. Louis Armstrong), but it was still just the younger generation wanting to be different and not having any real emotions. And the older generation has never been 'hep' or 'hip' or 'cool' or 'down' or 'hot' or ...
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#59I would suspect that one cause of uneasiness that some people have towards older people is due to the de facto age segregation practiced by much of this society up through the end of college. I know that I personally barely had any experience interacting with people more than a couple years older than me well into my twenties, excepting teachers and parents.
Even once one finally does get exposed to people of all ages, with some people it may take years for this uneasiness to wear off.
Re: Ageism is becoming an issue for me
#60[deleted]