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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?

#51

Post by oliwarner »

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…

Just in your reply you've mentioned half a dozen technologies that have only really spring up in the last half-decade. Given this appetite for churning technologies and techniques, it hardly seems like the ideal sector to sunset a career on.

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

#52

Post by drdaeman »

volaski wrote: post #47
monk_e_boy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Anyone of us could code some assembler - like OP said, it's fun and easy. We teach our 14 years olds how to code assembler - it's that easy. You don't honestly think you can compete with those skills? You need to learn the hard stuff. Aside from rest of the comments, this is such a ridiculous comment that I can't tell if it's a joke or not. Have you actually built anything meaningful with assembly language?

The language isn't particularly complicated, but with the assembly it's very easy to lose the sight of the forest for the trees.

I think that's why barely anyone uses raw assembly for any big pieces of code, unless they either have to (severe hardware constraints, lack of any compilers, or some specific needs) or want to challenge themselves. Higher level languages are there for a reason :)

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

#54

Post by typhonic »

A couple of years ago, right before my 58th birthday, I saw this posted on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6640430 It says more than I can, but I will add one thing. At about that same time my company hired an engineer a year older than me. He's still doing a great job. I'm not in precisely the same business as you, but it's close enough that I still read HN.

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

#55

Post by volaski »

drdaeman wrote: post #52
volaski wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone of us could code some assembler - like OP said, it's fun and easy. We teach our 14 years olds how to code assembler - it's that easy. You don't honestly think you can compete with those skills? You need to learn the hard stuff. Aside from rest of the comments, this is such a ridiculous comment that I can't tell if it's a joke or not. Have you actually built anything meaningful with assembly language?

The language isn't particularly complicated, but with the assembly it's very easy to lose the sight of the forest for the trees. I think that's why barely anyone uses raw assembly for any big pieces of code, unless they either have to (severe hardware constraints, lack of any compilers, or some specific needs) or want to challenge themselves. Higher level languages are there for a reason :)

That doesn't make this guy's comment anything close to true. It's like saying "Writing a piece of English literature is easy. All you need to know is alphabets. Really that's all you need to know." It is hard to express yourself using assembly, and like you said that's why there are higher level languages. Of course you don't need to know what a car is made up of in order to be a good driver, but it's idiotic to think the internal technology is simple.

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

#57

Post by drdaeman »

volaski wrote: post #55
drdaeman wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The language isn't particularly complicated, but with the assembly it's very easy to lose the sight of the forest for the trees. I think that's why barely anyone uses raw assembly for any big pieces of code, unless they either have to (severe hardware constraints, lack of any compilers, or some specific needs) or want to challenge themselves. Higher level languages are there for a reason :)

That doesn't make this guy's comment anything close to true. It's like saying "Writing a piece of English literature is easy. All you need to know is alphabets. Really that's all you need to know." It is hard to express yourself using assembly, and like you said that's why there are higher level languages. Of course you don't need to know what a car is made up of in order to be a good driver, but it's idiotic to thin…

Yes, exactly. I don't like analogies, but language and alphabet is a good one here.

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

#58

Post by karlkatzke »

learc83 wrote: post #18
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…

>As for your hourly rate I can tell you from experience the global market is making it very competitive so suck that up. I haven't had much problem with this. I don't compete on price because I can't bid lower than someone who has a cost of living 10x less than mine. One thing I've learned is that the higher your rates go, the less the global market matters. Few companies are willing to pay for $100+ an hour out of c…

To draw a parallel, this is true in the housing market in my city: If you're competing with people for a $300k house, you will have 20-30 competing offers all in the first day the house is on the market. If you are in the $425k and up market, which has tighter requirements for getting a loan, then you will only have a few competing offers and the house may be on the market for a week before an offer is accepted.

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

#59

Post by bitserf »

onion2k wrote: post #40
fsloth wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Have a look at OnShape. That future is coming faster than some people think.

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

#60

Post by klibertp »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #30
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?

Teaching or tutoring. Lots of work there and good money.

Really? Any pointers on how to get started?
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