After a long career in public health, I began learning to code at age 50. I took a couple computer science courses at a local university and then attended a bootcamp focused on Rails. The bootcamp got me an internship, and after the internship, I was hired on a junior dev. Three years later, I am still at the same company (although it has been acquired) and have received one promotion. Most of what I learned, I learned on the job, and there was a long period where I just googled, cut and pasted, but with time, things began to make more sense. I really enjoy what I do today and can imagine doing it for many years to come.
Learning to code at 56
101–110 of 165 posts
Re: Learning to code at 56
#102As long as you still have a working memory, you can learn anything at any age, I don't go along with this 'old-dog-can't-learn-new-tricks' thinking. Though obviously when you're younger it's markedly easier to pick up a new skill.
A big issue I have now is simply time; I think I could easily pick up new things (probably faster) but I no longer have the idle time to do it. You can learn anything but at some point you start prioritizing.
Re: Learning to code at 56
#103This 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.
It's hosted by "freecodecamp.com". Yes, of course it's going to be an ad for their offerings, if only in the sense of making them look good.
This is kinda like objecting that Google blog posts are really ads for Google.
"News is something someone doesn't want you to learn about. All else is propaganda."
Re: Learning to code at 56
#104After a long career in public health, I began learning to code at age 50. I took a couple computer science courses at a local university and then attended a bootcamp focused on Rails. The bootcamp got me an internship, and after the internship, I was hired on a junior dev. Three years later, I am still at the same company (although it has been acquired) and have received one promotion. Most of what I learned, I learn…
Congratulations! This made my day.
Re: Learning to code at 56
#105At 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…
At 24, I've noticed there are really two kinds of people in the world: those who think there are two kinds of people in the world and those that don't.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being witty, and that is not being witty. I wish I hadn't said that.
Re: Learning to code at 56
#106bootcamps - the best way of driving both wages and software quality down
That's a very non-inclusive way of thinking, and it is hard to imagine that it benefits the community as a whole. What if you substituted developers, in this situation, for doctors?
Wait, why is it the ideal to be inclusive of bootcamp-people in the profession, especially when it's typically people just seeing dev as a way to get more money from work?
Collaboration in engineering is hard enough without having to deal with someone that forces a git push, is comically overconfident in their solutions, or exhibits any number of traits I've found to be common from people coming from the "learn a trade in a hurry" programs.
Re: Learning to code at 56
#107Well, 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...
This REALLY irks me.
So how should we punish him for lying, polluting the net, wasting bandwidth,etc?
Re: Learning to code at 56
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Trust me when I say that this is all fear. Multiple times I have uprooted family despite all discomfort, odds, safety nets, etc. to pursue a passion. First it was moving out of state to attend graduate school. Second, it was leaving a 6 figure career to pursue my dream. Downsizing was necessary. I had to question my values about money, things, accumulation, happiness. NEVER sell yourself short. If you are passionate…
It's risk/reward. For lots of people, uprooting, changing their job/family circumstance at X time is too much risk--and a lot of people are probably right in that regard. There is no assurance that your bold venture will succeed, despite your planning, ambition, etc. And if it was all but certain, it wouldn't be very bold, it'd just be common sense.
Re: Learning to code at 56
#109Please 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.
I am not the author, but I'm in the exact same situation (except I'm 37). And I am following the javascript path. It seems employable, interesting and, not hard. I know it is a bet, I'm betting in React and if in two years it is old news, I will have to move on. But until then, I am employable. I am very early in my learning path (started from scracth last November), but I have a very clear impression that it is easi…
Re: Learning to code at 56
#110Well, 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.
I think you all are misunderstanding the article. It's extremely common on medium articles to use stock photo at the top of your article. This probably also serves as an article thumbnail in article summaries/indexes.
The author clearly uses a photo of what is ostensibly themselves as their profile pic. Nothing in the article indicates "this is me."
More important: there is little if anything to be gained by this deception. The article includes self promotion, including "Connect with me on twitter" in the author byline. But this is IMO a par for the course quid-pro-quo in nearly every blog article ever written.