81–90 of 270 posts
Most of my developer colleagues are over 40. No one thinks less of them for it.
On the contrary, an experienced developer is someone who has at least a good fifteen years under their belt. That usually mean "over 40". That experience manifests in ways such as not reinventing the wheel (a favorite, unintentional pass-time for the young and inexperienced).
45. Still coding, probably until I die. Light years ahead of younger developers in the following: * Writing less code * Writing maintainable code * Re-using existing code (requires reading existing code) * Know how APIs should be written * Knowing how to properly map associations * Know when or when not to use another library * Knowing when to tell a product manager to go back and do some more product managing * Know…
~5 years experience speaking: How do you do this?
I have a very good boss and he knows things, objectively, like "estimates are very squishy," and "developers suck at estimating time" etc. But he still demands time estimates to give clients.
Our clients are often agencies, and they get it as well.
I do estimates like "10-40 hours, depending on XYZ (things I don't know)" sometimes and it doesn't really raise any eyebrows. That may as well say "I don't know."
Are you better than this? Do you just outright refuse or do you have some way you handle it?
I'm 71, I wrote a best-seller in the early 1980s (Apple Writer for the Apple ][), I still code regularly but not for income, so my circumstances might not be what the article focuses on. I write a lot of Python, JavaScript, some Java, I have a number of Android apps listed at the Google Play store -- all of them free, no ads ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Paul+Lutus&h... ). Why do I still program?…
What's up with the phrase, "Still programming?" Would anyone think it odd for a 60-year-old physician to still be doctoring, or a 60-year-old lawyer to still practice law. Or for that matter for a 60-year-old artist or craftsperson to "still" pursue their craft. Corporate culture embraces the notion of management as a profession. I think programming would benefit greatly from more of a tradecraft model, where leaders…
45. Still coding, probably until I die. Light years ahead of younger developers in the following: * Writing less code * Writing maintainable code * Re-using existing code (requires reading existing code) * Know how APIs should be written * Knowing how to properly map associations * Know when or when not to use another library * Knowing when to tell a product manager to go back and do some more product managing * Know…
can you justify the 2-3x difference between you and a guy who was been coding for 5-7 years ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is still some truth to it. I'm 37 and have had to repeatedly and forcefully turn down managerial roles. The idea of horizontal growth is a hard sell to people who've chosen the vertical path. It would be very easy to drift into a management role, and in fact it happened to me once and I had to take deliberate action to get off the management track. I don't want to manage people. I want to build, and learn about…
I'm 10 years older than you but feel the same way. I would be interested in hearing from people that did make the jump to management. Why did you do it? How did it turn out? Any regrets about making the jump or for not making the jump sooner?
I'm now 40 years old and recently took a position as Software Development Manager. I manage a small team (currently 2 developers, 1 test engineer, and a product owner, and should be adding 2-4 more devs over the summer). The PO and I still wear our developer hats for a good portion of the day.
The "why?" is simple - I like the challenge. Yes, I can challenge myself with 100% technical tasks, but moving into management was something completely new.
The move into management has been gradual. I followed a standard developer path for years - dev, senior dev, principal dev, architect. Did the architect thing for a few years, then decided I wanted to work on my soft skills, so took over the scrum master role. I have a great boss/mentor, the position worked out well, and I recently took over a full development manager role (basically, same as I was doing, with the addition of personnel management).
How did it work out? Pretty well, I suppose. So far, I'm enjoying the new responsibilities.
Regrets? No, not really. But, I'm also not far enough removed from 100% developer that I couldn't pick up that hat again should the need arise.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is still some truth to it. I'm 37 and have had to repeatedly and forcefully turn down managerial roles. The idea of horizontal growth is a hard sell to people who've chosen the vertical path. It would be very easy to drift into a management role, and in fact it happened to me once and I had to take deliberate action to get off the management track. I don't want to manage people. I want to build, and learn about…
I'm 10 years older than you but feel the same way. I would be interested in hearing from people that did make the jump to management. Why did you do it? How did it turn out? Any regrets about making the jump or for not making the jump sooner?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Obviously not on StackOverflow Definitely. The content on Stack Overflow is heavily weighted towards languages and specialties less likely to be of interest to older programmers. We (I'm 51) are far more likely to be working on infrastructure and devops than on front-end. To do it, we're using C, maybe C++, maybe Python or even perl and bash, not Java, definitely not JavaScript or any of its variants, or Erlang, or…
> To do it, we're using C, maybe C++, maybe Python or even perl and bash, not Java, definitely not JavaScript or any of its variants, or Erlang, or Clojure, or whatever. Not always, but much of the time. The things we need to know are scantly represented on SO. The languages you mention using are all in the top 20 tags. Yes, JavaScript, Java, and C# are the top three, but Python is #7, C++ is #9, and C is #18. Bash i…
45. Still coding, probably until I die. Light years ahead of younger developers in the following: * Writing less code * Writing maintainable code * Re-using existing code (requires reading existing code) * Know how APIs should be written * Knowing how to properly map associations * Know when or when not to use another library * Knowing when to tell a product manager to go back and do some more product managing * Know…
> Saying "I don't know" when asked "How long will it take" or "When will it be done" ~5 years experience speaking: How do you do this? I have a very good boss and he knows things, objectively, like "estimates are very squishy," and "developers suck at estimating time" etc. But he still demands time estimates to give clients. Our clients are often agencies, and they get it as well. I do estimates like "10-40 hours, de…
I came across a graybeard in an interview recently who refused to take a coding challenge and cited his experience instead. He did not advance through the interview process.