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Learning to code at 56

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Re: Learning to code at 56

#151

Post by beachstartup »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #143
beachstartup wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'm 52 — dove into family+salary+mortgage around the age of 30. I have no regrets at all. Kids are awesome, a wife is awesome, home equity is awesome.

i wouldn't say 30 is an early age. it is young but i was referring to people who get shackled at 22 before they actually fully develop.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#152

Post by phs318u »

chuamo wrote: post #134
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…

51? Most men die at 25... we just don't bury them until they are 70. -- Benjamin Franklin

:-)

Re: Learning to code at 56

#153

Post by Baeocystin »

Brockenstein wrote: post #70
Baeocystin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm not saying you're wrong and 43 is still fairly young (I'm only 35) so it's possible even if there was a difference that it could still be negligible and there's all sorts variables that go into how well people learn as they get older. But you could be wrong. Can you really accurately track how well you learn on a day to day basis over a lifetime? Doubtful. Even if you could really only learn 85% as well as you di…

All very good points.

I can honestly say that I have an easier time learning anything now than when I was in my 20's. Any subject, whether it's new to me or not.

The only deficit I've noticed is that an unexpected distraction affects me more, and it takes me a little longer to get back in to the groove. Whether this is because of my brain, or simply because the things that distract me (I heard a thump, did my Dad fall down? Do I need to call an ambulance?) are more serious than what distracted me in college, I cannot say. Probably both.

The only thing I will say in my defense is that I was a caregiver while my Mother descended through the hell that is Alzheimer's; I am intimately familiar with failure modes of the brain.

I also had my Dad move in with me after my Mom passed. He is mentally competent, but very stubborn about his hearing and other deficits.

This causes a tremendous amount of frustration on my part, and I have promised myself to never lie to myself about my changing abilities, no matter what.

Can I do so? Hopefully. Clearly I can't guarantee such a thing, but I'm used to having to work around health issues. I'm asthmatic, and have pretty severe IBS, which is an awful thing I wish on no one. If I am grateful for one aspect of it, it has taught me to respect my physical abilities and limits, no matter what they are, or what I wish them to be.

A useful skill, I think.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#154

Post by phs318u »

cowardlydragon wrote: post #146
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…

Yes they are hard at work: - destroy the housing market... check - ruin higher education... check - destroy democracy ... check - bankrupt social security and medicare... in progress, but basically a foregone conclusion - destroy all jobs for the current generation ... check

I think you're being a little unfair. The world is a large system of systems. I'm going to use the analogy of a set of spinning tops of varying sizes and speeds. For the longest while it has seemed that most of these spinning tops have been quite stable, whizzing around perfectly balanced - and they have. So much so, that people have forgotten that there is any other state. Recently however there have been changes - small initially - that have perturbed some of these tops so that they are now wobbling and bumping into other tops, cascading perturbations. Perturbations are scary and - no surprise - hard to predict where they'll go. No one really understands (though they may try and guess) what's going to happen next. The current state of the tops seems to bear no relation to how we started. How did we get here? What can we do? Meanwhile, well meaning but largely ignorant "spinners of tops" are busily trying to restore the earlier balanced state by various means, not realising that they are only adding to the chaos.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, very complex systems can have emergent complex (even chaotic) behaviours not originally anticipated. Outputs no longer bear a recognisable relation to inputs. Or even simpler, never ascribe to malice[1] what is often the result of ignorance/incompetence.

[1] Though clearly, there are some malicious actors who are now exploiting the chaos and introducing perturbations to their own short advantage.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#155

Post by Baeocystin »

epalmer wrote: post #64
Baeocystin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Baeocystin - I fit that bill. I am 63. I can learn still but my ability grasp really complex random info has fallen off. My ability to learn info that I am passionate about not so much. I have learned what I can learn and how to learn. In college I could retain a lot for a little time period. Today my short term memory for syntax is not so good. In the book dyslexic advantage[1] they state that dyslexic's short term…

Cheers, my fun guy friend! :D

I think the 'learning how to learn' skill is possibly the most important one a person can possess, but by its very nature, it isn't something that comes without long practice. I know I can think of how I approached study in my late teens/early 20's with a shiver at my poor choices.

I do IT work for small business owners. One of the things that I've noticed over the years is that the number of successful small businesses that are run by dyslexics is much higher than you would expect from the %/population numbers. And it is clear to me that it is their ability to conceptualize what the business needs, visualize how to move forward, and (perhaps most importantly) comfort in delegating tasks that plays a large role in their success.

Which works well for me, too. I may not be dyslexic, but I quite enjoy their work style.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#156

Post by Baeocystin »

BatFastard wrote: post #19
pc86 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whose definition of important? :)

Everyone has their own definition of important. I would like to think that after writing software for 30 years I have a decent knowledge of what my customers value. So for me, reliability, scalability, and ease of use are more important than whether a language supports tail recursion and dynamic typing.

I certainly agree with you there. Cutting the Gordian Knot of overly-complex software salad, and deploying only what my customer needs, while keeping it simple and robust, is how I pay my bills.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#157

Post by beat »

adamredwoods wrote: post #147
beat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, sure, it's an oversimplification. But I think it's a pretty valid one. It's not just about learning new things (you don't even need to learn to be on the winning side - I know artists who are driven to create , who have already refined their technique and are focused on creativity now).

Let's try not to oversimplify other people's problems. The "beaten and defeated" could be dealing with issues we know nothing about.

Or they could be people I've known for twenty or thirty years.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#158

Post by greenhatman »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #82
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…

What I really enjoy about being 51 is being able to understand both extremes you describe -- as well as being able to understand and remember what many other segments of life was like. It gives you quite a broad view! At times it feels like standing on a mountain and seeing a vast landscape that you've crossed to get here -- and the mountain path ahead that leads to new heights. There's also the joy of playing to typ…

>I have no doubt that skills and abilities decrease with age.

I wonder if this will just be true for your generation. Because of computers and the programming industry only really taking off when you were already a few years into your career.

I can imagine that someone who started their career with programming early and just continues with it might just keep widening the gap between them and newcomers. Which might only change if there is another shakeup in our lifetimes.

My boss from my previous job is in his mid forties and extremely good technically. Intimidatingly so. I imagine I can become the same if I keep going at it the way I do now. I'm 31.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#159

Post by epalmer »

Baeocystin wrote: post #155
epalmer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baeocystin - I fit that bill. I am 63. I can learn still but my ability grasp really complex random info has fallen off. My ability to learn info that I am passionate about not so much. I have learned what I can learn and how to learn. In college I could retain a lot for a little time period. Today my short term memory for syntax is not so good. In the book dyslexic advantage[1] they state that dyslexic's short term…

Cheers, my fun guy friend! :D I think the 'learning how to learn' skill is possibly the most important one a person can possess, but by its very nature, it isn't something that comes without long practice. I know I can think of how I approached study in my late teens/early 20's with a shiver at my poor choices. I do IT work for small business owners. One of the things that I've noticed over the years is that the numb…

Yes. Turns out I founded, ran and sold two small businesses. I've seen alot of dyslexics in small businesses.

Edit: typo

Re: Learning to code at 56

#160

Post by [deleted] »

greenhatman wrote: post #158
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I really enjoy about being 51 is being able to understand both extremes you describe -- as well as being able to understand and remember what many other segments of life was like. It gives you quite a broad view! At times it feels like standing on a mountain and seeing a vast landscape that you've crossed to get here -- and the mountain path ahead that leads to new heights. There's also the joy of playing to typ…

>I have no doubt that skills and abilities decrease with age. I wonder if this will just be true for your generation. Because of computers and the programming industry only really taking off when you were already a few years into your career. I can imagine that someone who started their career with programming early and just continues with it might just keep widening the gap between them and newcomers. Which might on…

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