On Getting Older in Tech
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On Getting Older in Tech
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Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#2> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#?
With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. that ugly green "Free Shipping" button at the bottom right. The site's also not responsive / mobile friendly and gives several "rookie" invalidations, errors when run through common web validators. I didn't even get to performance testing.
So... is there some truth to what Zuckerberg said (and I am no fan of his BTW). Personally I don't think Old(er) people are any less smart than younger people. But I do see time and again that Old(er) people have a hard time (or are not putting effort into) understanding and implementing current tech trends in terms of UI, Usability, best practices etc.
Thoughts?
* EDIT 1: Found the Whitehouse.gov homepage from the 90s. Funny that Whitehouse.gov posted it as a "throwback" but this wouldn't be anything I would be proud of if I was the President in this Web Era lol. => https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/10/23/throwback-thursda...
EDIT 2: Why is everyone down-voting me? Do you all really think the UI is great? And that a mobile-unfriendly site is ok in 2016???
EDIT 3: OP's site kettlerusa.com has crashed now. Shows that it was ill prepared for a traffic surge (from HN). Also implies caching and scaling was not addressed. So how does show that this old programmer has "kept up to date"? Caching is very basic.
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#3> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
My thoughts:
"Current tech trends in terms of UI" are generally antithetical to usability. Speed is an important aspect of usability, and web sites and mobile apps are as slow and unresponsive as they've ever been.
Like security, performance is a holistic concern; it cuts across layers abstraction (your "stack"). Because even good software is so layered these days, a younger programmer is less likely to have visited enough areas of the stack to form good mental models about performance.
On looking at the site you point out, I think it could use some CSS changes, but that's usually in the domain of design and not engineering.
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#4> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
There is no truth to what Zuckerberg said - the guy has said many idiotic things in his life, and this one ranks near the top. You're picking the author's website as an example, but it's a single datapoint - not representative of anything. Many younger people code much worse things, and many older people code much better things.
I'm slowly reaching 30 (agh), and I refuse to work in any team that doesn't have any members above at least 40. In all the teams that I've worked in, having people in the team (not necessarily management) who have been around for more than a few decades has always been extremely valuable. My best managers have been a man in his 50s, and a woman in her 60s. My worse managers and colleagues have consistently been too young and too inexperienced and too cocky.
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#5> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
My thoughts: "Current tech trends in terms of UI" are generally antithetical to usability. Speed is an important aspect of usability, and web sites and mobile apps are as slow and unresponsive as they've ever been. Like security, performance is a holistic concern; it cuts across layers abstraction (your "stack"). Because even good software is so layered these days, a younger programmer is less likely to have visited…
> Speed is an important aspect of usability.
Agreed. But I couldn't bring myself to get past the ugly UI and get to performance testing, bundling / minifications, async calls etc.
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#6> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
In the absence of other information, I'd chalk that up more to the client. This is a shopping site for the US arm of a German manufacturer. Cutting-edge design was probably not of high importance to them. Also, I don't see any claims by this person that they were a designer.
What your criticism reads like is a pretty good example of how things like ageism, sexism, or racism sometimes play out. Take something, find some fault with it, exaggerate its significance, and ascribe the source of that fault to an immutable characteristic of the person involved.
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#7> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
There is no truth to what Zuckerberg said - the guy has said many idiotic things in his life, and this one ranks near the top. You're picking the author's website as an example, but it's a single datapoint - not representative of anything. Many younger people code much worse things, and many older people code much better things. I'm slowly reaching 30 (agh), and I refuse to work in any team that doesn't have any memb…
> but it's a single datapoint
Thanks. But isn't your experience with very old managers also a single datapoint, or at best, a dozen datapoints?
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#8> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
Google's landing page.
Your argument is invalid.
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no truth to what Zuckerberg said - the guy has said many idiotic things in his life, and this one ranks near the top. You're picking the author's website as an example, but it's a single datapoint - not representative of anything. Many younger people code much worse things, and many older people code much better things. I'm slowly reaching 30 (agh), and I refuse to work in any team that doesn't have any memb…
> but it's a single datapoint Thanks. But isn't your experience with very old managers also a single datapoint, or at best, a dozen datapoints?
I have a few hundred data points of coworkers in my career at this point (maybe even low thousands), and the number of "out of touch old guy" I've encountered pales in comparison to the number of "arrogant clueless young guy" I've had to bear. (interestingly enough, I've had many good female colleagues, a few great ones, and no terrible ones)
Re: On Getting Older in Tech
#10> Want an example where the programmer codes in something other than “antiquated” RPG? How about HTML5, JavaScript, and C#? With all due respect, Sir -- and I understand I will be in your shoes in 4 decades -- the site you've built, using HTML5, JS, Grails, Groovy and what not I presume - kettlerusa.com - has the look and feel of a 90s website (think the whitehouse.gov * unders Bill & Gore's administration), esp. tha…
What is the objective measure of "ugliness"?
I found the site to be well-organized and intuitive. In less than ten seconds I understood what kind of products they were selling, how to buy them, and how to find out more about the company. As a _user_ the site was _effective_. Oh, and free shipping for orders over $40! Knowing this up front (because my attention was drawn to it) could very well influence my buying decision.