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Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#401

Post by paulcole »

hpen wrote: post #391
paulcole wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I’d be fine with it. I took 3 years off from working (lived frugally off savings) and that is basically all I did. Purposely avoided anything that would be considered “productive work.” I mean I read some books and rode my bicycle, too. But my time was pretty much just watching TV/movies and laying around. Best time of my life by far. I cringe when I tell someone about it and they are like, “oh but didn’t that…

This sounds like absolute hell to me

I had ultimate and total freedom to do exactly what I wanted. If that’s not heaven I don’t know what is.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#402

Post by eternalny1 »

vecinu wrote: post #389
pxsant wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not retired because I don't want to live on social security alone. That would be a bummer.

What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

Many people suffer various setbacks in life ... take medical bankruptcy for example. You never know how it will turn out.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#403

Post by itsoktocry »

vecinu wrote: post #389
pxsant wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not retired because I don't want to live on social security alone. That would be a bummer.

What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

>If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

And then what? Believe it or not, some people consider programming a blessing and fun. If it keeps you engaged, why not continue to get paid for it?

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#404

Post by tarsinge »

fastball wrote: post #183
tarsinge wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That really is use case dependent for me. In the context where I have made a thoughtful choice to use a dynamically typed language, I find strong typing seems to make things unnecessary clunky with not much gain, especially in webdev dealing with a lot of JSON and UI display. And if I’m in a situation where JS/dynamic language is not a good choice then I prefer a real statically typed language, not a middle-ground.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#405

Post by bregma »

jkingsbery wrote: post #236
pxsant wrote: post #212

I am 80 years old and still working full time in IT. Although I evolved from pure programming to project management and business analysis the past few years. Originally started out working at Cape Canaveral as a radar and telemetry engineer and moved into programming after I left there. Whenever I interview, I completely ignore the age issue. If the interviewer is to dumb to recognize the value of my knowledge and ex…

How did you go about getting your phd? Did you take a break from paid work to go to school? Did you work on your thesis nights/ weekends? Do you feel like you learned from your advisors, some if whom I'd imagine were younger than you? Did you study an area related to your work at the time? Or did you use it to learn a new area?

I'd be very curious too. My son's university is proposing to do the next year (mostly) remote, which sounds like a perfect way for me to go back for a couple of classes too. I always wanted more letters after my name.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#406

Post by dang »

genedangelo wrote: post #287
millstone wrote: post #90

Thank you, this is a wonderful post! Please share more of your story. (Write a book, please). I would love to hear answers to the following: 1. What ideas proved useful throughout your career, and what ideas did you change your mind about? 2. What are your hobbies? Do you still program in your spare time - if so, what? Or do you find other outlets? 3. What went into the decision to go back to school? Did you get the…

That's a lot of questions, but let me take a couple. I got my Master's degrees in the early 1970's, when we used something called a "slide rule". In 1990 I went back to school to update my skills and expand my knowledge into artificial intelligence, which I had become enamored with. Unfortunately, I didn't finish my PhD (big mistake!) because in 1995 I jumped on an opportunity to join a company that had this amazing…

Is HOPS something that could be discussed publicly on HN? are there sources and examples that people could look at? If so, we could arrange some sort of thread about it.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#407

Post by bregma »

vecinu wrote: post #389
pxsant wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not retired because I don't want to live on social security alone. That would be a bummer.

What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

Yes. imagine if you retired you could turn to programming full time just for fun!

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#408

Post by fastball »

tarsinge wrote: post #404
fastball wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, the weak typing intrinsic in JS still makes Python win out between those two.

That really is use case dependent for me. In the context where I have made a thoughtful choice to use a dynamically typed language, I find strong typing seems to make things unnecessary clunky with not much gain, especially in webdev dealing with a lot of JSON and UI display. And if I’m in a situation where JS/dynamic language is not a good choice then I prefer a real statically typed language, not a middle-ground.

In what situations do you find weak typing useful? I've only ever had it introduce bugs and not make my life any easier. Meanwhile dynamic typing makes it a lot quicker to prototype things (vars that can be null or an int, for instance).

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#409

Post by the_arun »

vecinu wrote: post #389
pxsant wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not retired because I don't want to live on social security alone. That would be a bummer.

What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

End of the day, passion & some objective in life - is more valuable than few dollars we earn. This is more useful in old age than ever.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#410

Post by Mary-Jane »

zerr wrote: post #363
Mary-Jane wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, more optimistically, if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life. I love programming too and have no plans on stopping either. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Continuing programming != continuing being an employee, working for others.

What's wrong with working for others? Similarly, what's the point of programming (or of any work, I suppose) if it isn't helping someone?
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