82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding • Hacker News Board

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#31

Post by ben_jones » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:48 PM UTC

noir_lord wrote: post #24

paulpauper wrote: post #11

I still find it hard to get a php ajax form to work despite tinkering with code for over 10 years. I can;t imagine trying to code an entire app when getting a form to work takes hours. guess some people learn faster than others

Things are a lot less painful than they used to be. fetch()/promises/async/await and better browser support. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormData https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API Also promises (coupled with async/await) make things a great deal more pleasant and I'm old enough to remember the old days.

How does javascript async/await solve form handling (presumably pure html) and basic PHP?

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#32

Post by TangoTrotFox » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:50 PM UTC

bazooka_penguin wrote: post #4

I wonder how much of brain elasticity in as adults is just due to attitude. I generally find kids more eager to jump into new things, while adults are more stubborn and complacent towards new experiences. Once you have money or kids it's a lot easier to just have someone else do it for you. Still, at 82 I imagine most people will start developing issues with memory so it probably isn't an easy feat, and she's found m…

Coming from the chess world, I suspect your hypothesis is correct. I've taught adults and children and all else being equal adults learn and improve vastly faster than children.

But the all else being equal part is the catch. Adults often don't put as much effort into the work as children and a big problem is preconceptions that people have difficulty letting go of.

I also consider myself some slight degree of proof of the hypothesis. I didn't even learn how the pieces moved until I was 17, which is ancient in the chess world, and didn't take it seriously until I was in my 20s. And now I have enough grandmaster scalps to create a.. err.. something that uses lots of scalps!

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#33

Post by hobofan » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:51 PM UTC

bazooka_penguin wrote: post #4

I wonder how much of brain elasticity in as adults is just due to attitude. I generally find kids more eager to jump into new things, while adults are more stubborn and complacent towards new experiences. Once you have money or kids it's a lot easier to just have someone else do it for you. Still, at 82 I imagine most people will start developing issues with memory so it probably isn't an easy feat, and she's found m…

I think it's not just about attitude, but also about having learning as a habit.

I can't find it, but I recall an article in Science showing that Myelin production is increased when there is a continued demand for it (so Myelin production can be trained like a muscle to some degree). The higher-level interpretation was that since Myelin production is connected to brain elasticity and learning, that once you get over a initial bump of starting to pick up the habit of learning more Myelin would be produced and it would be easier to learn going forward.

Anecdotally I found that to be very true. It was always easier for me to pick up new things during the week when I kept my brain in a "learning state" on my off-days by reading books or having a stimulating discussion with friends. But who knows, that might just as well be a Placebo effect.

(Sorry for missing reference, and the unscientific jumping to conclusions)

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#34

Post by t3rmi » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:53 PM UTC

bazooka_penguin wrote: post #4

I wonder how much of brain elasticity in as adults is just due to attitude. I generally find kids more eager to jump into new things, while adults are more stubborn and complacent towards new experiences. Once you have money or kids it's a lot easier to just have someone else do it for you. Still, at 82 I imagine most people will start developing issues with memory so it probably isn't an easy feat, and she's found m…

I think its due to a couple of things. 1. Free "Space"/"Threads" in our brain as kids we had a clean install of an os with only hunger and sleep to worry about. As adults we juggle with dozens of things in our mind. 2. Fear of failure. As kids we dont really care about what others think as we grow older we lose this wonderful ability :(

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#35

Post by gaius » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:54 PM UTC

corpMaverick wrote: post #7

I feel it is kind of sad to see old people in the casinos. They are mindless spending time. They don't even seem to enjoy it. There must be games that are more enjoyable than that. no skill needed, no creativity being developed.

They are mindless spending time.

You pull down, something spins, sometimes you get a reward.

Slot machine or Facebook app?

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#36

Post by zpatel » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:54 PM UTC

I made an app for 2 older folks (~75) who connected with me over the web. The high level idea and functional spec was provided by them. One of the main reason i helped them was because it was interesting to see someone at their age trying to change the world (a bit) positively through the use of software..

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#37

Post by zzzeek » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:56 PM UTC

corpMaverick wrote: post #7

I feel it is kind of sad to see old people in the casinos. They are mindless spending time. They don't even seem to enjoy it. There must be games that are more enjoyable than that. no skill needed, no creativity being developed.

I actually stepped foot into a depressing casino some years ago and actually saw slot machines, and was amazed that would appeal to anyone. they're full blown video games but only have one button. super boring! and dumb - hey here's our hotel and restaurant, but to pay for your stay, instead of paying at the desk, you have to spend your whole vacation in a dark smoky room buying tokens to feed into a machine and pushing a button for days on end. sign me up.

I predict that current generations who have grown up with technology and video games are going to be much less interested in really dumb machines like this. But this is total armchair conjecture and I'm probably totally wrong.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#38

Post by gaius » Mon, May 21, 2018, 7:56 PM UTC

cpeterso wrote: post #25

> Wakamiya bought her first computer, then moved on to a Microsoft PC, and later a Mac and iPhones. So what was her first computer?? :) The article says she bought her first computer after retiring from a 43-year career, which would be around 1997 (year 2018 - age 82 + 18 years + 43 years).

So what was her first computer??

Probably a super-cool Japanese machine that never made it to the West like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_NEWS

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#39

Post by gowld » Mon, May 21, 2018, 8:00 PM UTC

tw1010 wrote: post #27

I always found it funny, the idea that age or agism should in any way stop you from achieving cool shit in business. Entrepreneurship is a jungle. Your customers, largely speaking, doesn't know your age or gender or whether or not you went to an ivy league school or anything else. Some career directions certainly do depend on that stuff, but that's mostly because they depend on other people for advancement. But build…

What are some examples of successful businesses that launched and operate without person-to-person contact and negotiations?

Purely automated online operations conceal identities, sure, but investors usually know who the entrepreneurs, and major clients and vendors and joint-venture partners do too.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#40

Post by joering2 » Mon, May 21, 2018, 8:02 PM UTC

Since I posted it I feel compelled to add: its irrelevant that this person was a woman of Japanese decent.

We all know gender and nationality is irrelevant when it comes to skill of coding, but I wanted to keep it intact in the title as the article goes.

As of her age, I do think its quite unique skills to be so laser-focused at something as tedious as coding, even more in CamelType structured language as Apple forces on you.

I only code for last 30 years but I do hope to have such clarity of my mind when I reach her age, hopefully :)