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It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

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Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#241

Post by Bartweiss »

SapphireSun wrote: post #175
pfranz wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not flavor with malts? I haven't looked into the history of American beer, but many styles seem to come from the price of local ingredients and qualities of local water. That makes me things hops were cheap and plentiful and caused the IPA trend.

I'm not a super expert, this is just what my friends in the biz have told me. I wouldn't be surprised if several factors conspired to create the IPA trend. Yes, there are many ways to infuse flavor into beer, some of which you mentioned above. My friends make IPA styles, but also many others using all kinds of tricks like malts, waters with different minerals, pHs, different base ingredients, brewing wheat in differe…

Aeronaut is a great option for some new flavors. They do all-out hoppy IPAs, but if that's not your thing the other options are distinctive and tasty.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#242

Post by ErikAugust »

I think the most unconscious or perhaps completely conscious bias that I'm not sure I'm seeing mentioned with age is salary requirements and other various forms of compensation.

Older people are thought to have mortgages, families, etc. They often cost more money, and work less hours.

That's simply never thought as attractive to employers who want more work hours for less money.

Disclaimer: Not saying this is right - but I think that's a big part of it.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#243

Post by Bartweiss »

unprepare wrote: post #148
Kluny wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory: they taste like pine trees, and we've got a lot of pine trees, so it just feels right. Try drinking an IPA in Mexico sometimes. Super inappropes. But in PNW it makes sense. For awhile, til you get sick of it.

We've got a lot of pinetrees in michigan as well, but we generally dont have these super hoppy styles. I think theres also regional hop variations, so maybe theyre just less piney here.

Cascade hops are super strong, and are grown out in the PNW/Colorado area, so that's a big chunk of the problem. Other hop varieties lend themselves much better to malty beers, or to darker options where the bitterness is more subtle.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#244

Post by nfriedly »

gmarx wrote: post #207
taylodl wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Older folks whose kids are self-sufficient are able to focus their time and energy into their work - even more so than twenty-somethings who are still wrapped-up in life's dramas associated with being young. And they have a lot of experience to boot.

and, let's face it, many of them like having the excuse of long hours to stay away from a family they have grown tired of. My brother told me once he had kids he finally understood the joy of mowing the lawn; you get time away from the kids and wife and its so loud they never think to come bother you and it's work so they don't have the excuse that you are just goofing off

That reminds me of a joke:

Three men are talking: A programmer, a doctor, and a lawyer. The lawyer says, "Man, the only way is to have a mistress. With all these divorce suits, it's terrible. The only way is to have a mistress." The doctor says, "Are you kidding? With all the STDs out there, you want a wife and that's it." The programmer says, "You need both a wife and a mistress. Because when you're not with the mistress, she'll assume you're with your wife, and when you're not with your wife, she'll assume you're with your mistress, and THAT leaves you more time to be in the lab programming!"

(Found on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/234075)

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#245

Post by toomuchtodo »

mywittyname wrote: post #199
crimsonalucard wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most diversity initiatives are discriminatory by nature. Assuming your company hires people exclusively based on skill.... In order to artificially balance certain ratios your company must discriminate on who they hire. In the educational world this is called affirmative action.

I disagree. Diversity is about hiring people based purely on merit, rather than letting prejudices about gender/age/race taint the hiring process. Nobody's suggesting that we hire under-qualified women/elders/blacks, but they are saying the merely being such is not an indication of inferior ability or lack of "culture fit."

> I disagree. Diversity is about hiring people based purely on merit, rather than letting prejudices about gender/age/race taint the hiring process.

What if that means you end up mostly with white males due to women and minorities being drastically underrepresented in the total tech employee pool?

Diversity is great until you hit the statistics wall.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#246

Post by jmde »

olalonde wrote: post #140
oxryly1 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this. And even worse, "I recognize that 'bleeding edge tech' as yet another rehash of something innovated in the 60s or 70s and therefore I'm not nearly as impressed as you by it."

This sort of remark reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFWeoxrhbE8 (or perhaps https://youtu.be/ZjibEkDoXQc?t=19 ) It doesn't add much value to the conversation and whether some tech is really a rehash or not rarely matters. It also makes you sound cynical.

It does matter if you're aware of the cost:benefit ratio involved in adopting it relative to the existing tech, or even more commonly, the cost:benefit ratio involved in adopting it relative to adapting or modifying existing tech. Maybe as an employee, it might not be the right thing to be pushing with an employer enamored of the new tech, but as an objective onlooker, it very well may be.

There's plenty of amazing innovation happening all the time, so I don't want to come across as a luddite or whatever, but hype does happen, and as you get older, you witness more of it and become more skeptical of it. You see the fads come and go--the faster they come, the faster they go--and the survivor bias. The problem is that it's there, and it feels sometimes like you face the choice of correctly pointing that out, or being labeled a cynic.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#247

Post by 6dqh5yapl3 »

jraines wrote: post #74
6dqh5yapl3 wrote: post #20

I'm 24. Guess I should buy a shitty condo in Hayward with a 15 year mortgage so I'm paid off when the age discrimination kicks in. 40+ year old engineers with prop 13 equity or rent control - I'm jealous.

Hayward's not so bad at all :) Get the quake insurance though. I still wince when I see what the cost of a Hayward condo would buy back in Georgia.

If you live in Hayward, do you happen to know how much the insurance costs?

Hard to get a quote without providing an address. And I don't want to someone to get spammed by an insurance seller because they listed their home for sale and I used it to get an insurance quote.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#248

Post by coleifer »

rdiddly wrote: post #191
coleifer wrote: post #115

My parents and my friends' parents are all nearing retirement age, and I've been surprised by the profound differences in their responses to the realization that they are becoming old. It seems clear to me that age is just a state of mind. Some people act old and are cautious fucks that recoil from change. Others try very hard to appear as if they "get it", though they obviously don't, and the fact that they're tryin…

Well you had me and then you lost me. But speaking as one of the ones who doesn't give a fuck, I'd say it's because we know we're right. Like if I think "I'm a great candidate" and some company made up of little twerps says "Yeah we don't think so," I know I'm the one who's right. My answer is based on (let's say) 25 years of working that career; theirs is based on a 60-minute interview. (Done by someone who's spent…

I had you and then I lost you? I don't think I ever had you, Mr. Great Candidate. I'm glad you feel so comfortable in your own skin that, despite your obvious superiority, the rejection of the little twerps doesn't keep you down.

Clearly I never had you.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#249

Post by jackhack »

oxryly1 wrote: post #76
throw_away_777 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you did was definitely illegal and immoral. It is not your decision to make on how someone should live their life.

Probably, but I was in over my head and the team evaporated within months. With hindsight I would have done many things differently, and my approach to interviewing that person is just one of many.

I think it was brave to say, and a valuable addition to the discussion.

Re: It’s Tough Being Over 40 in Silicon Valley

#250

Post by nfriedly »

beamatronic wrote: post #189
kragen wrote: post #79

"Michael Peredo, a 55-year-old auto engineer dismissed from Mercedes-Benz in February 2015, says he had trouble giving up his bow ties for T-shirts, as some he met at ProMatch suggested. ‘I feel like myself wearing them,’ he says." Yeah, you're going to have a really hard time getting a programming job in Silicon Valley if you show up in looking like a security guard in a tie, let alone looking like a waiter in a bow…

Is there a suggested outfit that over-40's should be wearing to interviews? Is a hoodie a must-have? Is it better to wear an Apple watch, or say a Nixon watch?

I like the advice in the article, actually:

> hang out in the parking lots of places where they’ll be interviewing to see what the people there wear

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