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Learning to code at 56

medium.freecodecamp.com

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Re: Learning to code at 56

#71

Post by beat »

beachstartup wrote: post #52
beat wrote: post #39

At 51, I've noticed there are really two kinds of people at my age... people who are completely beaten, and people who are winning. Once you hit 40 or so, the scope of mortality really hits you. You realize that you've probably already had half your productive life, maybe half a career. You start seeing peers die of "old age" - heart attacks and strokes and stuff. For most, they're beaten, defeated. They decide this…

part of the problem is by the time you're 50, you've had 30 years of adult life to accumulate bad decisions. a lot of people are saddled with obligations they never actually wanted. :(

Yeah, this. :( My ability to stop working for The Man and start my own company has been severely hampered by the need to pay my mortgage and kids in college and stuff.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#72

Post by melling »

grok2 wrote: post #28
webwanderings wrote: post #8

This appears to be an Ad for free code camp (not that there's anything wrong with that). Just ten years younger in a similar boat, I'm neither taking a boot camp, nor writing about my "CIS". To each their own. Learning is a life long activity. It shouldn't matter what one learns at any age.

Perhaps it really is an ad, but if it is real, I am impressed that the person thinks at 56, he has enough runway in life to make a serious contribution by coding :-)...I like that attitude.

Who said that he needs to make a serious contribution? Maybe he gets a well paying job and produces good work for a decade.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#73

Post by jansenv »

jaclaz wrote: post #47

Well, if it is not an ad, at least is some astroturfing, how come the BIG photo is not that of the actual guy? The image on the article is this one: https://i2.wp.com/tobecomeateacher.org/wp-content/uploads/20... "Stock photo" by Jake Barford: https://unsplash.com/@jakebarford The photo of Mr. Vaughn, (from his "profile"): https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/100/100/1*Lu4bKAqf2Sxm...

Looks a bit like Jeff Daniels in dumb & dumber aged 10 years.

Good find though. This is really fishy.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#74

Post by geoelectric »

Baeocystin wrote: post #11
johansch wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does take longer for many people to learn new things when they are 50-60 though. I do think we have to be realistic about the issue that many people who learned and performed complex intellectual skills in their 20s/30s no longer perform this kind of ability to pivot in their 50s/60s; to learn a new craft that depends on learning a lot of new information/skills. Of course this doesn't mean that all people in their…

Speaking as a 43-year old, while I do have some health issues that I didn't have in my 20's, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, I find learning new things as easy as it's ever been. And I honestly don't think I am unusual in that regard. I have a much wider framework of accumulated knowledge than I did 20 years ago, and leveraging that, I can see how wider parts of systems interrelate with a clarity that I never came clo…

44. My memory is definitely a little worse than when young, and I think I've probably slowed down somewhat in the absolute sense. But I also have 21 years of experience to build on, which is quite the accelerator.

New tech is frequently old concepts applied in a new way. Once you recognize those core concepts and can find older analogies, you're way ahead. In the end it's a net gain.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#75

Post by thght »

Please don't go the web developer (javascript) path; node, react, webpack, etc.. It will drive you nuts, things keep changing radically in a very high pace and can take quite some time before you feel comfortable in this crazy field.

I would choose python, ruby(or crystal), c++, c#, etc.. and stay away from the browser, unless you have a very good reason to write for that.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#76

Post by blubb-fish »

beachstartup wrote: post #52
beat wrote: post #39

At 51, I've noticed there are really two kinds of people at my age... people who are completely beaten, and people who are winning. Once you hit 40 or so, the scope of mortality really hits you. You realize that you've probably already had half your productive life, maybe half a career. You start seeing peers die of "old age" - heart attacks and strokes and stuff. For most, they're beaten, defeated. They decide this…

part of the problem is by the time you're 50, you've had 30 years of adult life to accumulate bad decisions. a lot of people are saddled with obligations they never actually wanted. :(

Life as an adult is fundamentally and naturally about responsebilites and obligations - and most men no longer are able to cope with those because they bought into the illusion of life long youth - aka Peter Pan syndrome.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#77

Post by beachstartup »

blubb-fish wrote: post #76
beachstartup wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

part of the problem is by the time you're 50, you've had 30 years of adult life to accumulate bad decisions. a lot of people are saddled with obligations they never actually wanted. :(

Life as an adult is fundamentally and naturally about responsebilites and obligations - and most men no longer are able to cope with those because they bought into the illusion of life long youth - aka Peter Pan syndrome.

no, i think you have it backwards. the men who are 50 something right now dove headlong into family+salary+mortgage at an early age, possibly against their true desires, and many of them are feeling the negative effects of that.

peter pan syndrome means you never actually did anything with your life (positive or negative), not that you've been beaten down by it. how can you be beaten down by nothing?

Re: Learning to code at 56

#78

Post by jaclaz »

epalmer wrote: post #62
jaclaz wrote: post #47

Well, if it is not an ad, at least is some astroturfing, how come the BIG photo is not that of the actual guy? The image on the article is this one: https://i2.wp.com/tobecomeateacher.org/wp-content/uploads/20... "Stock photo" by Jake Barford: https://unsplash.com/@jakebarford The photo of Mr. Vaughn, (from his "profile"): https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/100/100/1*Lu4bKAqf2Sxm...

jaclaz - nice detective work. Photo seemed a little too perfect.

Just very basic looking for it with Google Image Search, nothing to be much proud of, it is IMHO more interesting that you will find it also here:

http://bobdoesdev.com/

as the image referencing a testimonial "Jordan Blum, EIC, The Bookends Review" whose looks are also slightly different:

http://thebookendsreview.com/about-us/

As a rule of thumb, when it looks too good to be true, it isn't. ;)

Re: Learning to code at 56

#79

Post by [deleted] »

thght wrote: post #75

Please don't go the web developer (javascript) path; node, react, webpack, etc.. It will drive you nuts, things keep changing radically in a very high pace and can take quite some time before you feel comfortable in this crazy field. I would choose python, ruby(or crystal), c++, c#, etc.. and stay away from the browser, unless you have a very good reason to write for that.

[deleted]

Re: Learning to code at 56

#80

Post by johansch »

melling wrote: post #68
kordless wrote: post #65

I submitted this yesterday around Noon and got 3 votes. Today, here it is in another submission. Take a look at the URL. HN apparently uses the entire URL, including hashes, which means this is considered a separate submission. Interesting.

HN is a hit or miss. If you don't get upvoted quickly, you'll get missed. Several weeks ago, 3 of 4 stories that i submitted within two days were completely passed over, only to be resubmitted by other people, which ended up on the front page. One story was even #1 for several hours.

I have noticed this. I have also noticed that reddit is a lot better in this regard - good stories tend to get picked up - e.g. in subreddits that have a comparable new post volume.

Here it often seems quite random what does get picked up.

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