Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

belitsoft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 270 posts

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#141

Post by aanm1988 »

cyrux004 wrote: post #121
svachalek wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3-5X? What country is this? Typically in Silicon Valley there's a rapid rise in the first 5-7 years and then it gets pretty flat (say, 1.1X or 1.2X not 2-3X) unless you're actually taking on a bigger role (and thus getting paid for those responsibilities rather than "experience" per se). When you look at it from a company cost perspective, the ratios get even smaller. The fixed costs (desk, power, healthcare, etc) ar…

At Microsoft, annual compensation for entry level hire is around 130k (W2 box #2) where as for the principal engineer that figure is atleast 350k

Principal isn't a level most people reach, and has better salary.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#142

Post by aanm1988 »

VLM wrote: post #111
peapicker wrote: post #2

".. However, StackOverflow’s survey on age shows that there are just about 13% of developers after 40. Where are the others?" Obviously not on StackOverflow. Perhaps they have enough experience and knowledge to not need the site because they either know how to read tech books and sites to get the info they need when they have a problem using pre-existing docs, or conversely, are fully able to debug issues themselves.…

I grew up in an era where if I somehow forgot the option for recursive for the rm command I reflexively typed "man rm" and "/recursive" and maybe "/" a couple times. It seems younger people will context switch from the console to the web browser, pull up a google window, search for "unix.stackexchange rm recurse" and slowly scroll thru "About 43,700 results (0.97 seconds)" for perhaps hours, opening multiple tabs. Pe…

Must these posts always devolve into bashing young people?

Every thread there is some old guy going on about how stupid young people are.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#143

Post by gjmacd »

I'm 52, started writing code professionally in 1985. Started my career on 68K assembler. In the 90's I was a Windows SDK developer (then COM/ATL, etc.), In 1999 started a company but chose Linux and embraced FOSS and built a company on a Lamp stack (sold it in 2014).

The only thing that can hurt you in this industry is that you stop learning and stop growing. I tell my employees to always learn something new every month. Pick something cool, learn it. This industry changes too fast to stick in one area of technology. Two years ago, nobody was talking about Node.js as being "important", now you can't see a company or startup not looking for Node/MEAN stack developers -- that's how quick this industry moves.

But hey. I am old... I use Emacs (still), but have moved to Visual Code on my Mac (with Emacs bindings of course...). I do most of my work in the ZSH, but use Bullet Train and Powerline Shell... So I embrace "new" and am open to things that make it easier and better.

Personally? How do I keep pace being the old man? I take 3-6 months off and learn a new technology. What I mean about "learn" is that I actually build an app that's useful or used by customers (people). I don't just play with something, I learn it to become productive and then move to the next thing...

Right now, I've just got to the point of feeling "productive" in Elixir. Which I think is going to be the "game changer" on the full stack side and love functional programming (after being an OO guy for what, 25 years!?)... Elixir is my new love and haven't been this excited about a stack in a long time.

Learn, learn, learn... write code, keep your brain active. Age means nothing in this field other than when you show up for an interview and the rest of the employees are wearing Skinny Jeans and you've got Dockers on.

I like to call it "Dad coding".

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#144

Post by lutusp »

aventuri wrote: post #125
lutusp wrote: post #78

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?…

Paul Lutus, you a mith of my Apple ][ times. cant believe (and SO happy..) you online!! IIRC you were programming in a bungalow out of nowhere at that time.. right? me, 50 yo, still coding embedded sw..

> IIRC you were programming in a bungalow out of nowhere at that time.. right?

Yep, that be me:

http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programmi...

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#145

Post by Clubber »

Joeri wrote: post #60
SimonPStevens wrote: post #32

"StackOverflow’s survey on age shows that there are just about 13% of developers after 40. Where are the others?" Not wasting time filling out online surveys? I'm not even 40 yet and I realised online surveys were a waste of time years ago. :-) A stackoverflow survey doesn't measure the answers of stackoverflow users. It measures the answers from the specific demographic of stackoverflow users who are inclined to ans…

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…

Not only that, it's much harder to move around different companies as a manager. That's one of the reasons I stay away from it. Also, I don't like listening to people bitch about petty things. I manage small groups of people but I'm always deep in the code.

Also, most places want you to be a manager only. If you don't code every day, you lose it pretty fast. A friend of mine who is a VP had that problem. He got stuck in a shitty company and felt trapped. He jumped without a parachute but luckily landed.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#146

Post by ishbits »

justin66 wrote: post #120
cryptonector wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reason graybeards are valuable. It's not that they're over 50 or 60. It's experience. A full-stack developer with 20 years' worth of experience will not make certain kinds of mistakes.

Does anyone with 20 years experience refer to themselves as a "full-stack developer?"

Sure. But it means I can write device drivers up to a single page application UI.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#147

Post by cyberferret »

I'm 50 and still writing new code and launching new apps. In fact, I've probably release more apps in the last 5 years that I did in my previous 25+ years of programming (started when I was about 18).

While I concur that I am not as energetic as I used to be in my 20's and 30's - i.e. I cannot do non stop 12 hour code marathons etc., I think my code these days is a lot more disciplined and well thought out, and better organised.

I will happily spend time to look at the latest and greatest bleeding edge technology or framework, but when it comes time to write 'money code', I usually fall back on tech that has been around for 5+ years.

My passion for coding has not diminished - I am still excited every time I sit down at the keyboard. As long as I feel that, I will keep coding or working around software.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#148

Post by drchickensalad »

cyrux004 wrote: post #121
svachalek wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3-5X? What country is this? Typically in Silicon Valley there's a rapid rise in the first 5-7 years and then it gets pretty flat (say, 1.1X or 1.2X not 2-3X) unless you're actually taking on a bigger role (and thus getting paid for those responsibilities rather than "experience" per se). When you look at it from a company cost perspective, the ratios get even smaller. The fixed costs (desk, power, healthcare, etc) ar…

At Microsoft, annual compensation for entry level hire is around 130k (W2 box #2) where as for the principal engineer that figure is atleast 350k

Principal is not normal.

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#149

Post by pdxpatzer »

aventuri wrote: post #125
lutusp wrote: post #78

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?…

Paul Lutus, you a mith of my Apple ][ times. cant believe (and SO happy..) you online!! IIRC you were programming in a bungalow out of nowhere at that time.. right? me, 50 yo, still coding embedded sw..

Ditto! Could not have said it better.

me, 51yo, system administrator.

Grew up marvelling at Apple Writer knowing that a guy wrote it in a cabin in the woods.

Sir, you were (and still are) a great inspiration !

Re: Software Developers after 40, 50 and 60 Who're Still Coding

#150

Post by yodsanklai »

41. I learned programming when I was 8 (basic on a C64) and I have as much fun programming today as I've ever had. Besides, there's no doubt I'm a better programmer today than I was 5 or 10 years ago and I keep learning new things.

Actually, I'm more worried about ageism than about the decline of my abilities. I work in academia, but I wonder if I could get a software engineer position if I wanted to.

Post reply on HN