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On Getting Older in Tech

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Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#301

Post by myth_drannon »

Lambdanaut wrote: post #269
riprowan wrote: post #264

48 yo here, started coding when I was 14, so that's 34 years of building things. Here's where I'm at. I look back at my career and I can tell you about great projects that I got to be part of, awards and plaudits that I won, big paybacks from projects that went well and literally saved the company. That's all nice to have war stories. But I can't point to any of it and say, "I made that" because - and here's the kick…

Dude. Open source software.

Even jQuery which is one of the most famous open source projects will be forgotten in 10 years or even less.

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#302

Post by jameshart »

blub wrote: post #104

I don't find this post inspiring, I find it sad. It's partly self-encouragment, part PR. The fact that it even exists is proof that the author is facing some issues, no matter how confident they would like to appear. That recipe to stay current looks tiresome. Listen to two podcasts, two webcasts, subscribe to four magazines, teach courses, go to one conference per year, blog regularly, read blogs, follow the latest…

I'm not sure if you intend this, but your comment comes across as a bit like "God, it's so embarrassing watching these old guys try to stay trendy by using the latest JavaScript frameworks, it's like seeing an old guy in skinny jeans riding a skateboard. They're not doing it because they enjoy it, they're just trying to act like the kids".

Who says using the latest javascript toys is only for the kids? Are you really worried that if you see old coders using the tools you like, that maybe that means they're not as cool as you thought? Is that really how technology works?

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#303

Post by jtolj »

epalmer wrote: post #161

I'm going to apologize ahead of time. this might be a ramble. 63 year old white guy with little hair and a lifelong beard that is now white. A tad overweight as well. I feel for so many people expressing angst about ageism. I've seen it elsewhere but not where I work now. I suspect that at the faster growing companies and companies in tech centers, mostly on the coasts, see more pronounced ageism. My last job was at…

I'm in Richmond VA as well and in my late 30s.

I do worry about aging out of this industry and my long-term plan is pretty similar to the path you have taken. My hope is that I can participate in the agency/startup ecosystem for another 10 years before I have to find something else to do. Hopefully that will still be in technology, and will probably be in Higher Ed or at a Nonprofit for a less money but more intrinsic rewards.

I haven't observed specific instances of ageism towards me or others (people being passed over for promotions or treated differently than younger employees), but I also haven't worked with many people 50+ since I started in this sector. I'm not sure how much of that is that people in that age group are looking for a more balanced lifestyle and how much comes from the companies that do the hiring.

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#304

Post by woah »

kbenson wrote: post #255
whostolemyhat wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this was fixed with strict mode; this is like criticising Java for not having generics, even though generics were added ages ago. You can still assign/use global variables in the browser, but like the parent says, this is the browser's fault - having to accept old and badly-written code for compatibility reasons.

My biggest problem with JavaScript is that I never can seem to wrap my head around the multiple null/undefined type of values and how to correctly test for them, as well as type introspection. Or, more appropriately, my problem with JavaScript is that it makes that confusing, and I use it just infrequently enough that I forget what I learned last time regarding that. Of course, that's not entirely JavaScript's fault,…

I think the majority of complaints about JavaScript are from people who are forced to use it infrequently, and don't quite remember how to use it.

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#305

Post by throwaway26960 »

vostok wrote: post #274
timemachiner wrote: post #215

I'll probably be ~36 by the time I complete a PhD in CS. Should I be OK in terms of finding jobs at hip companies upon graduation (big 4, etc)? My areas of interest is in ML, algorithms but I'm completely OK with normal software development positions. Reason I'm older is I decided I had a passion for it in my late 20s / wanted to do research, but had to go back to school to take classes before enrolling into a PhD. H…

In my experience, age is measured from when you finished your education and not from when you were born.

education is a lifelong pursuit.

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#306

Post by rdiddly »

treehau5 wrote: post #270
che_shirecat wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he's trying to say that ageism isn't as much of a big deal as people make it to be (outside of SV's alternate reality) - everyone in the industry deals with the constantly shifting landscape that engenders feelings of job insecurity for programmers young or old. It's just tougher on older techies that haven't carved out their niche. If you're trying to fit in and compete with fresh bootcamp grads working new…

I really dislike this constant caveat that people keep placing against SV. "Well it isn't a problem outside of SV!" I keep seeing this appear in comment after comment on this article

I guess you're allowed to dislike a fact, but any particular reason you dislike this particular fact?

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#307

Post by inimino »

mysterypie wrote: post #204
qznc wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> use your wisdom to understand which technology/language is going to survive the test of time I usually use statistics. If you select a random point on the lifetime of something. There is a 50% chance, that you are closer to the middle then either start or end. Thus: Always assume you are roughly in the middle of the lifetime. In other words, if some technology is only one year old, assume it is dead in another year…

That's a great rule of thumb. You should give it a catchy name so people remember it. When I don't have good insight into whether it's worth my time to learn some new tech, I'm going to try to apply this rule.

This is the Lindy Effect[1].

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#308

Post by vostok »

throwaway26960 wrote: post #305
vostok wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, age is measured from when you finished your education and not from when you were born.

education is a lifelong pursuit.

I'm obviously referring to the last degree that the person received and not to learning in general.

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#309

Post by matwood »

saiya-jin wrote: post #271
hultner wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is actually a really hazardous approach, almost every job I've had as a software developer have introduced me to a new language and as someone who's been writing code for 10+ years there's hardly a large struggle to learn a new language or framework, especially if it's just another c-like imperative language .

I heard this so many times before about just another language... learning language itself? yes, can be done damn fast, plus everybody had some java-like language in their studies. Knowing this means almost nothing, we're talking about very junior-level resource. You know gazillions of frameworks to achieve everything these days, their integration tricks, various app servers, CI toolsets and so on and on? I mean, if y…

I'm sorry. No actual senior person who is senior at java or c# takes months of babysitting to switch to the other. The beauty of a senior person over someone who is junior and knows only js, is that the senior person should have used many languages over their careers. Picking up a new language and/or framework is what senior people should be doing best. Most of the factors that go into a proper maintainable solution are all language agnostic. Good design, DI, IoC, all of the 12 factor app suggestions are all language independent.

Even when I was back in college many years ago, only the first class taught a language. From that point forward the teacher of each class said we're using language X and suggested a book if you needed help learning.

Re: On Getting Older in Tech

#310

Post by sh_tinh_hair »

Yes,there is ageism but there is also some remnant of meritocracy in IT development and operations (though both the evolution of devops and enterprise agile + ci/cd tool culture will eventually kill that imo).

The only way to remain in the IT game at the age of 45+ is to learn constantly and use your aggregate experience to determine what is good and bad and necessary. When most of the 20+ year IT veterans are in set piece environments they enabled or abetted...technological advent and invention is the enemy.

All the musings on how great a person you really are contra|outside tech are band-aids on reality. If you make your living in technology: be better than the other guy or be useful to them. That's all there is. Otherwise your days are numbered.

We can ramble on about salad days and personal achievement but the younger guys snicker and say 'listen to this fossil' and do their thing. As you would have in their shoes.

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