That is great to see someone who has being doing this for so long. True respect for someone like this instead of someone who is just jumping the band wagon because tv show like Mr. Robot, the React FB, side effect.
Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
181–190 of 555 posts
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#182Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you agree that a language X can be objectively superior to language Y? I worked with PHP professionally for some 10 years, with very competent colleagues from whom I've learned a lot. The PHP ecosystem with Composer and Symfony components is quite good. Still, PHP itself is a terrible language. I have less knowledge but a similar opinion of JavaScript. Doesn't mean people working with PHP or JavaScript are lose…
The point is that a language can evolve so much they are not even the same language. I prefer ES2016 to Python for example.
Eh, the weak typing intrinsic in JS still makes Python win out between those two.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Margaret Hamilton is an inspiration, but is she actually still working at age 83? I can't find anything that would indicate she is. For something like the "longest-working programmer" I'd expect them to have been actually "work"-working during that time. And I think I'd classify Knuth as the slightly different "longest working computer scientist". He's known for his quote "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have onl…
She's the CEO of Hamilton Technologies: http://www.htius.com/
OP asked longest-serving programmer. That doesn't involve people who switched to management or some other position like CEO.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#185This made my day, absolutely wonderful achievement! Especially the area that you’re now in...it’s really not an easy task to retrain yourself for ML. I’m 12 years in professionally and still loving every second of it! Currently been slugging out Leetcode problems all hours of the day to try and get myself to an org with a proper engineering track. So maybe further down the line I still might be able to solve computer…
Funny. I too with 14 years also with a lot of love for programming want to have a career like him. Like you I too am leetcoding so that I can get into a proper engineering company where I will not be discriminated based on age.
Hope we both will do the same as what the OP did.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wonderful to hear that, and congratulations to you for that accomplishment. I worry those type of opportunities are no more, or at least much rarer.
I always wonder what the next thing like programming is that isn’t mainstream yet. Maybe there is an opportunity in that. Quantum computing? But then they’d hire phds I guess.
As someone who runs a quantum computing software company, I can confirm your intuition. Almost everyone we hire to work on quantum computing directly has a PhD.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#187This is really great! Keep doing what you are doing, Sir.
I once had the pleasure of interviewing a German consultant who was into Android programming and he was like 48 or 50 years old. The interview was like listening to stories of his programming days with various hardware(Commodore etc) and it was fascinating that too with his precise German English accent.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
She's the CEO of Hamilton Technologies: http://www.htius.com/
OP asked longest-serving programmer. That doesn't involve people who switched to management or some other position like CEO.
It would be fun to have her coming to tell if she's still brainstorming or coding.
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#189Respect! I've only been programming since approx 1979. I still remember the first time that I saw internet technology used in 1982 - transferring a file from the US to the Uni of Leeds in the UK. I also have no plans to stop although I have retired from full-time employment. Now just a hobbyist, who programs every few days, at my own pace and on my own projects. Here's my own thought. My last place of work did a lot…
> It could be argued that many modern digital natives are really the locked-in inhabitants of digital cities and walled gardens.
So true. I am lucky that almost all my programming is for personal enjoyment/growth and have gotten a huge amount of pleasure from breaking out of the infinity of abstractions that make up modern operating systems and getting into electronics and microcontrollers (which can now be purchased for pennies). There’s something great about truly understanding a system (also true about larger scale and even non technical systems, but I have particularly felt the change you describe from pioneer/settler to controller citizens on modern computers).
Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?
#190Awesome! I have no plans to retire. I turn 50 in a few weeks and just returned back to the technology field after leaving it for 14 years.
Eventually I plan on getting another masters or a PhD in data science, statistics or some other computer science field.
If I could I'd buy you a cup of coffee and pick your brain. If you went to FAU then we are relatively close.