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Not Just Any Old Geek

blog.oldgeekjobs.com

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271–280 of 305 posts

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#271

Post by clifanatic »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #216
coldtea wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were having cardiac surgery, would you prefer your surgeon to be a year out of med school having done the operation oh 3 or 4 times, or the proverbial graybeard who has done it a thousand times? If you were hiring, you would want the starry eyed, finger in the pulse of latest fads, young programmer you can pay less, overwork, boss around, and screw over, or the senior engineer, who values sane hours and time…

If that's what the hiring person is like, though, I'm fine with not getting that job...

- until that's _all_ there is.

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#272

Post by johnwheeler »

superJimmy64 wrote: post #39

(Not that it really matters, but I'm 27...) A few things came to me after reading the post: Firstly, how this situation shared by the OP and many others is pure insanity. That the very people who grew up with this technology during the baby years are now struggling to have a place now that it really has taken off. Secondly, for those in their mid-30's and onward, to realize how immensely skilled they likely are at wr…

Thank you so much! Made my day with this comment, more than the upvotes even.

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#273

Post by Animats »

ryandrake wrote: post #145
rubber_duck wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm the more comparable parable would be "or the proverbial graybeard who has done ~~it~~ kidney surgery a thousand times" The stuff you did in software 20 years ago has absolutely nothing to do with the stuff that's being done today. Like holly shit most people weren't even using source control back, unit testing and automated testing in general was SciFi, it was done by QA departments if you were big enough to do i…

> The stuff you did in software 20 years ago has absolutely nothing to do with the stuff that's being done today. The longer I'm in software the more and more I find this not to be true. The stuff that has changed is all surface level. The underlying principles are the same. The skills needed are the same. The attention to detail and other attributes needed to get the job done is the same. The problems are basically…

There's new stuff that's a significant advance (machine learning that really works), there's stuff that's just different (like most of the web backend technologies), and there's stuff that's worse (security).

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#275

Post by zem »

37 (!)

ironically, 37 was the last age at which i felt "young", for some vague psychological reason 38 was the year that tipped me into "sliding towards middle age".

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#276

Post by Shebanator »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #251
czep wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were having cardiac surgery, would you prefer your surgeon to be a year out of med school having done the operation oh 3 or 4 times, or the proverbial graybeard who has done it a thousand times? If you were wrongly convicted and awaiting a death sentence, would you pick a 22 year old attorney fresh from law school to defend you? If you have a field full of tomatoes that needs picking, do you save a few dollars…

If you were building a team to win the Super Bowl, would you pick the hot shot 23 year old fresh grad from college, or the 50 year old experienced Hall of Famer?

50 year old hall of famer? Its rare for a QB to make it to 40 years old in the NFL. Peyton Manning retired at 39 years old after he won the Super Bowl last year, and he was considered ancient and past his prime despite that achievement.

Furthermore, I just looked it up, and the oldest player to ever have played in the league was George Blanda, who retired at age 48. http://www.profootballhof.com/football-history/40-and-over-c...

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#277

Post by employee8000 »

sangnoir wrote: post #269
employee8000 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate smug answers like this. I'm old and the young people I work with at Uber are amazing and get tons of things done. Just because you're old doesn't mean you know any better or just because they are young, it doesn't mean they can't get shit done. Pretending that just because you're old you hold some magical advantage doesn't fly. You need to prove yourself every day because this is the industry we are in. And th…

> Pretending that just because you're old you hold some magical advantage doesn't fly Experience is not magic, it is not directly a function of age but of duration in the industry. I'm not even tyat old yet, but my experience (aka larger training set) so far allows me to pattern-match/foresee potential disasters way before they appear on radars of more junior devs: and this goes for technology, people and processes.…

You're comparing great old people with shitty young people. I know plenty of very shitty old people and a lot of great young people that would invalidate what you said above. And in my experience there aren't very many great old people that are current with technology, that can code quickly, etc. most just want to keep doing what they're doing and earn a paycheck which is fine but then they shouldn't complain when they get replaced by younger faster models.

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#278

Post by dejv »

dvirsky wrote: post #186
dejv wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that was mostly point for others to consider better planing of their career. Personally, I am not going to be developer for much longer (unless some catastrophe happens). Income from my winery, various projects, rental properties and other businesses will soon replace my income from computer programming.

Oh, I read it as "plan you career as programmers " :) Good to hear you're finding other passions. Software is my second career BTW, I only started professionally at 29 (I've been programming since age 10). I know what being trapped in a job you lost your passion for, and can't get out of, feels like. And I feel very blessed that I found my professional path. I do know that it's not for everyone.

I do like programming as a hobby and a business and I am surely going to continue doing it in next decades.

Doing programming as a job with viable long term career is another topic with quite a few landmines. I am glad I am not into this race anymore.

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#279

Post by ChuckMcM »

Ageism is definitely a thing but its also an interesting strategic advantage. Historically the company with the best mix of experience and energy have been the ones that succeed in the long run. That said, for the first 2 - 5 years of their life a company is pretty much a random series of experiences teaching the employees what they don't know. They have to get to the point where they can actually see that there is a lot to learn and not enough time to learn it before they can value someone who has that experience.

Old engineers are like security enhancements, they seem to cost more than they are worth until you experience an event that would have killed your company if they hadn't been there.

Re: Not Just Any Old Geek

#280

Post by vsync »

santaclaus wrote: post #174
rubber_duck wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stuff you learned in your CS course is still just as relevant as it was 20 years ago. The things you did in your development career are nowhere near so. Did you use SCM, automated testing and design patterns 20 years ago ? If yes do you think this was the norm in the industry ? I'm not saying those things are the only relevant things, I'm just pointing out the obvious examples of how much things have changed sinc…

> Did you use SCM, automated testing and design patterns 20 years ago ? If yes do you think this was the norm in the industry ? Design patterns are way older than 20 years... hell, the design pattern bible was published 22 years ago, which means design patterns were in wide circulation well before I could tie shoes. According to wikipedia CVS has been around for 26 years.

> According to wikipedia CVS has been around for 26 years.

Not to mention SCCS for 44 years, and RCS for 34.

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