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

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

#151

Post by [deleted] »

cryptonector wrote: post #84
numinary1 wrote: post #62

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…

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.

[deleted]

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

#152

Post by [deleted] »

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?"

[deleted]

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

#153

Post by kabdib »

My father-in-law retired at 75; he was writing embedded systems for machines involved in chip manufacture.

I'm 56 now. I'm just going to go until I can't do it any more; 75 would be great. Writing software and working with hardware is pretty awesome.

Consider how fortunate we are, who have found successful professions that we enjoy -- many people don't get that opportunity.

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

#154

Post by agentgt »

I'm reluctant to weight in as I'm only 36 and well not terribly impressive. However as the owner of a company I must say programming is so much more relaxing than dealing with people... well mainly just people external of our company and family.

There is something extremely cathartic about programming. I'm not sure I can ever fully describe it. All I know is when I have to talk to a customer or partner I occasionally think... god I wish I was programming right now... even in Perl or PHP... anything.

The irony is I actively seek conversation as I always want to improve our company but about 20 minutes in and I start feeling uncomfortable.

The thought of never programming again is a scary thought to me.

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

#155

Post by jaegerpicker »

criddell wrote: post #66
Joeri wrote: post #60

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?

So I'm not terribly old yet (37) but I'm a manager for the last 2 years. I'm on the fence about the whole issue. At my root I'm a builder, I love it and really would never leave that. That said, I've had a lot of REALLY bad managers and I know that I can do it better. I love leading my team. It's amazing and thrilling to be able to tune the situation and work being done to benefit everyone involved to the maximum that the situation allows. Then comes the downside. Dealing with the other managers and the higher level business people. Some days, maybe even most days, it makes me miserable. I loathe it. So much self interest and political games. The really bad situation is that I work for a company that is actually really tame with that kind of thing. It's just the nature of the beast once you start up the chain.

Honestly I don't think it holds a future for me. At some point I'm moving to starting my own company... again or trying to turn my manager role into an architect/CTO type role or even more likely going back to being a lead developer. I don't regret it because I know what it is and that I can answer that bell when I need to. I just don't want to anymore.

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

#157

Post by cyberferret »

gjmacd wrote: post #143

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 mo…

Snap! - your programming life (and age and timeframes) matches mine almost to a 'T'.

Totally agree about constantly learning new stuff, but also doing it the right way (i.e. real world apps rather than another 'Hello World' or simple blog post/commenting app).

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

#158

Post by cyberferret »

geldan wrote: post #127
kaftoy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that day never comes.

I hope it does. If doctors are replaced it's because medical care has improved beyond their capabilities. How could you not want better medical care?

If I had to have someone operate and suture a ruptured artery inside me after a terrible accident or something - I would rather a human doctor be able to do it. Also, a human being would be better at doing that in a non clinical environment (such as road side assistance at a vehicle accident scene etc.).

Also, as the son of a respected doctor, I see other aspect of 'doctoring' that extend to far beyond technical or diagnostic skills. Hardly a day went by when we were out in public when a former patient of his would approach us and thank him for safely delivering their child or saving their lives. I don't think that an email thanking AutoDocBot3000 v2.33 for diagnosis & drug dispensation # 288374 would have the same impact.

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

#159

Post by gjmacd »

cyberferret wrote: post #157
gjmacd wrote: post #143

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 mo…

Snap! - your programming life (and age and timeframes) matches mine almost to a 'T'. Totally agree about constantly learning new stuff, but also doing it the right way (i.e. real world apps rather than another 'Hello World' or simple blog post/commenting app).

Excellent! Here's to gray hair Docker wearing developers!

Until you've built a useful application on the stack, something that can be utilized for something, you've not spent enough valuable time to be productive on it... just something I learned a long time ago and stuck with.

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

#160

Post by drawkbox »

Software development/engineering is still a young industry, most developer jobs really came about with the internet in the mid-90s on up and increasing every year. So the numbers will skew younger at least for a few decades.

The bulk of people that have been coding since jr/high school and college are around or in their 40s now. C++ was invented in mid 80s for instance and not really fully in taking over desktop apps for a few years, combined with the internet then browsers, from that everything today + mobile which is another growth area. People were pushed into management because there were minimal veterans in the early 90s/00s, and you could be a senior coder within a few years.

The ages will eventually skew up especially with GenY/Millenials being greater in numbers than Gen X who were really the first generation to fully have internet jr/high school/college on, and many went into development, older than that some switched but most had their path in life already going. Ages will skew older with the next couple generations as they age. When radio started everyone was young in it as well for many of the same reasons.

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