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Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

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Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#31

Post by georgemcbay »

hkmurakami wrote: post #3

Have you considered embedded software? What you describe and long for (including all the constraints) seems to match the needs and challenges of embedded development. Example of places would include TI, Intel, Atmel, etc., and also hardware makers that use their chips.

This is good advice.

As a somewhat older (42) programmer whose early career was similar to what OP is describing I've been focusing on embedded systems and most recently Android development -- granted, Java isn't C and there are quite a few things I dislike about the language (and moreso the AbstractFactoryOfFactoriesClass culture it tends to have) but it is (practically speaking) MUCH closer to the sort of desktop app development that we used to do than either of back or front end web development (which I also don't really enjoy).

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#32

Post by drdaeman »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #27

I don't know if this will help, but I can pick the niche for you. Here are the languages and frameworks you should be learning today: * JavaScript (ES6), Node.js and Express, React You should also get a refurbished Mac Mini or Macbook, and start learning Swift for iOS development. Put together a few simple apps. There's a lot of jobs for iOS developers. A lot of Rails developers seem to be moving on to Elixir and Pho…

>> [OP]: I sure miss the "good old days" when you just focused on writing a single app in C that ran on a well-understood machine, or even a single well-understood OS API [...] Now it's all distributed, multi-level conglomerates of varied frameworks and languages sort-of working together

> [You]: JavaScript (ES6), Node.js and Express, React

From the tone of original post, I highly doubt OP wants to spend time on that, unless the stick would hit him really hard. Something like embedded software development or telco/networking also pays, while could be a more pleasant experience.

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#33

Post by fsloth »

blfr wrote: post #5

Perheps I'm in a bubble but everything seems to be running on stock Ubuntu VMs nowadays, occasionally disguised as Docker images. Either that, or iOS/Android. As for the game, our very own patio11 and tptacek have developed something a lot like that but with the end goal of getting you a job aside from all the fun: http://starfighters.io/

"everything seems to be running on stock Ubuntu VMs nowadays"

Except if one is developing desktop software. Windows is pretty dominant at desktop, especially when considering enterprise, CAD and so on.

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#34

Post by fsloth »

andrewstuart wrote: post #7

Errr... sounds like you don't want what to do what the job has become these days. Actually sounds like you don't even want to be working. Have you thought about doing something else entirely, try to find something you enjoy?

"Errr... sounds like you don't want what to do what the job has become these days"

I can assure that some people can still make a living as domain experts in limited niches.

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#35

Post by fsloth »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #29
nathan_f77 wrote: post #27

I don't know if this will help, but I can pick the niche for you. Here are the languages and frameworks you should be learning today: * JavaScript (ES6), Node.js and Express, React You should also get a refurbished Mac Mini or Macbook, and start learning Swift for iOS development. Put together a few simple apps. There's a lot of jobs for iOS developers. A lot of Rails developers seem to be moving on to Elixir and Pho…

I meet a lot of older developers who harp on about assembly and coding mainframes. Sure, it sounds wonderful, but they got fuck all done in a day. You should pick JS, something server side (PHP, Ruby, Python, or Node.js) and react. You'll spend a lot of time configuring libraries and services (webpack or webify) but that's just the way coding is these days. Anyone of us could code some assembler - like OP said, it's…

"You'll spend a lot of time configuring libraries and services (webpack or webify) but that's just the way coding is these days."

Not all paid programming is like that. Desktop + expert software = stable platform, can focus on implementing features on top of existing stack.

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#36

Post by drdaeman »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #29
nathan_f77 wrote: post #27

I don't know if this will help, but I can pick the niche for you. Here are the languages and frameworks you should be learning today: * JavaScript (ES6), Node.js and Express, React You should also get a refurbished Mac Mini or Macbook, and start learning Swift for iOS development. Put together a few simple apps. There's a lot of jobs for iOS developers. A lot of Rails developers seem to be moving on to Elixir and Pho…

I meet a lot of older developers who harp on about assembly and coding mainframes. Sure, it sounds wonderful, but they got fuck all done in a day. You should pick JS, something server side (PHP, Ruby, Python, or Node.js) and react. You'll spend a lot of time configuring libraries and services (webpack or webify) but that's just the way coding is these days. Anyone of us could code some assembler - like OP said, it's…

I don't think the hard part is configuring libraries and services or anything like that. When needed, anyone with enough competence to read the docs and peek into the source code and do whatever's necessary.

The real pain is that those who had stepped on this road have to always run at the top of their lungs, trying their best to catch up with this giant hipster bandwagon. The language and frameworks change every other day, with old code rotting away at an astonishing speed. Not everyone's cut for this kind of pace.

There are other areas than webdev, where things are more stable without stagnation.

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#37

Post by roel_v »

bragh wrote: post #28
Firegarden wrote: post #6

I am 36 and been contracting full time since I was 22. Really I was only an employee at my first programming job. The concern that you have is of technology stack. The concern you are alluding to is how to stay relevant when being an older person. The first concern is easy. Stick with some fundamentals. JavaScript for example is a perfect choice. By now we should all know JavaScript and another example is the Dom API…

.NET isn't cool in the start-up world because of the pricing and licensing issues. You can happily start developing a PHP+MySQL application on a used 100 EUR ThinkPad: good free IDEs are readily available (if you even need one), no licensing headaches and can start hosting it with your nearby 20 EUR/month web host with shell access. Although the situation is changing for the better in the .NET world, the hardware cos…

If your project depends on saving $500 on a computer (the one thing you really need to do you job, as opposed to say a carpenter who needs $5000 in equipment just as a basis), is that project really worth doing?

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#39

Post by estefan »

m0nty wrote: post #24

49 here, I'm not enjoying working in IT nowadays, I think it got old about 5 or 6 years ago. So I quit and I'm pursuing my own projects, doing some programming, and trying not to worry too much. I could have ground it out for a few months more in that lucrative contract I had, but just how long can I put up with being that bored? Personally, if I have to go back to the circus, I'll probably aim for short contracts or…

I don't want to be a downer, but devops is definitely NOT just a new name for being a sysadmin. We've actively recruited for people who are not old fashioned jump-on-a-box-and-make-hot-changes sysadmins. They need to understand automated infrastructure and deployment through code, so it's not a small niche to just pick up easily. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't pay so well.

Re: Ask HN: Does this old horse have a few years of useful work left?

#40

Post by onion2k »

fsloth wrote: post #33
blfr wrote: post #5

Perheps I'm in a bubble but everything seems to be running on stock Ubuntu VMs nowadays, occasionally disguised as Docker images. Either that, or iOS/Android. As for the game, our very own patio11 and tptacek have developed something a lot like that but with the end goal of getting you a job aside from all the fun: http://starfighters.io/

"everything seems to be running on stock Ubuntu VMs nowadays" Except if one is developing desktop software. Windows is pretty dominant at desktop, especially when considering enterprise, CAD and so on.

I have no actual evidence for this, but I think it's reasonable to believe that within 10 years about 95% of enterprise software will run in a browser. There'll still be niches where it isn't the case (CAD being an example) but for everything else, it's web technologies all the way down.
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