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

On finally learning to program at the age of 40

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 169 posts

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#151

Post by jaeming »

slumdev wrote: post #132
jaeming wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started at 39. I had been looking for a new career to transition from video editing. After the third time my employer restructured my role, I took a voluntary redundancy (basically volunteering to be laid-off) and started programming full-time. I did an online bootcamp and never looked back. Five years later I'm a Senior Software Engineer, and hoping to upgrade to principle engineer by end of the year. Sometimes I…

> I did an online bootcamp > Five years later I'm a Senior Software Engineer > hoping to upgrade to principle > Sometimes I suddenly feel like a fraud You're not alone. Without a broad and rigorous education, it's hard to imagine being anything other than an advanced journeyman after only five years.

And yet I find what my employer's prize are the most basic of concepts, having actually nothing to do with programming. Things like, attention to detail, admitting fault (ownership ties into this), regular updates and communication.

I also own code-bases simply because no one else was willing to or interested in doing so. Many times I've been out of my depth, but I've surrounded myself with an incredible team. I've found that in conversations where I was totally out my depth, I was able to contribute simply by asking basic questions or acting as a rubber duck.

Maybe Principle Engineer is a little but of a stretch I'll admit. But I'll still shoot for it and if I don't get it this year, it'll happen next year or the year after that. That's how I made senior after all, and probably why I find myself in roles like interim manager presently.

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#152

Post by cptnapalm »

Felt this. I had a C64 which came with BASIC. It was a struggle to get it to do what I wanted. Years later, I realized I was trying to things like write functions which you just couldn't do. Gave up.

Years and years later I had a AMD K6 233, had opted to try Red Hat Linux because Win95 was awful and was obsessed with playing Quake which I knew was written in C. So, I tried to learn C. Several times. I never got to the "click" point.

John Carmack, as I remember it, said to learn programming, do nothing else for 6 months. Eventually, years later, I did take that advice. It worked. I remember vividly when I finally grasped pointers. I wrote and expanded a dice roller to gloriously stupid proportions; it was threaded, had a very easy to use and flexible configuration file format and I was working on adding networking when the hard drive died. No backups. Yay.

And a new problem appeared: I wasn't a rank amateur anymore, but for the life of me I couldn't think of any program I wanted to write. So the skills lapsed.

Then I would have too many ideas and interests which resulted in the same conclusion, but would have to relearn first. I'd also be pulled in so many directions (robots! comic book timeline! starship emulator! UNIX shell idea, but in Klingon!), the result was the same: I'd accomplish nothing, despairing of ever doing anything.

So, I remain a perpetual amateur.

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#153

Post by triceratops »

holidayacct wrote: post #102

I'm having a difficult time believing that someone picked up coding and is proficient in doing so at 40 years old unless they had prior experience in something that was similar. It takes years to become proficient in coding to the point where you don't utilize massive amounts of executive function (which we have a finite amount of in any given day). In addition the act of reading and writing code does a ton of damage…

> In addition the act of reading and writing code does a ton of damage to the Wernicke and Brocas area

Jesus that sounds serious. Should I start demanding hazard pay from my employer?

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#154

Post by karmicthreat »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #149
karmicthreat wrote: post #145

I can sympathize. I always knew how to program since my teens. I'm 45 now, and didn't really start doing professional programming till I was in my late 30s. I worked hard for about 6 years to build up enough experience to feel confident doing this. Now I'm at the point where my current job is pretty boring and we don't grow enough to bring in harder problems. But I also really don't want to move out to SV to work on…

> I'm at the point where my current job is pretty boring and we don't grow enough to bring in harder problems This is usually the point at which I job hunt. Honestly, I need a place where new and interesting problems keep propping up. I don't think I'll ever settle but I do always leave on good terms.

Unfortunately I am in West Michigan. This is not a place with terribly interesting problems. I probably need to put together my own thing.

Whats the hardest problem anyone here has that they would pay money to have solved?

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#155

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

karmicthreat wrote: post #154
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm at the point where my current job is pretty boring and we don't grow enough to bring in harder problems This is usually the point at which I job hunt. Honestly, I need a place where new and interesting problems keep propping up. I don't think I'll ever settle but I do always leave on good terms.

Unfortunately I am in West Michigan. This is not a place with terribly interesting problems. I probably need to put together my own thing. Whats the hardest problem anyone here has that they would pay money to have solved?

You'd be surprised how often people can't express the problem and can't find the proper software solution.

A lot of manpower in most organizations is wasted because they can't find a contractor who will listen to their problems and actually try to fix them.

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#156

Post by swyx »

thepicklestork wrote: post #73
swyx wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

learned to code at 30 here after a previous life in finance. doing well 4 years on. if i can help anyone in this thread just reply!

Please elaborate! I just turned 30 and made it a goal to attempt a serious career change. Currently I’m 4 months in clocking 3+/hrs a day of (html,css,js) study. How long did it take before you felt comfortable throwing your hat into the career ring? I have tons of questions, but I would love to hear your story first. Thanks!

here: https://medium.com/hackernoon/no-zero-days-my-path-from-code...

good luck, friend

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#157

Post by ApolloRising »

mythrwy wrote: post #106
holidayacct wrote: post #102

I'm having a difficult time believing that someone picked up coding and is proficient in doing so at 40 years old unless they had prior experience in something that was similar. It takes years to become proficient in coding to the point where you don't utilize massive amounts of executive function (which we have a finite amount of in any given day). In addition the act of reading and writing code does a ton of damage…

I started programming at 39 1/2. (well except for a year or two of BASIC when I was a teen). I've been doing it professionally for 9 years now and I turn 50 next spring. No brain damage noted yet.

What type of coding appealed to you?

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#158

Post by [deleted] »

darkteflon wrote: post #12

I'm in this boat. Finally started programming in 2018 at age 38 after a lifetime of playing around with computers as a hobby (thanks, dad!) and a first career in a completely unrelated field, as an attorney. The linked article is about learning for pleasure, but there are also challenges associated with trying to enter the field as a second career. The technical complexity, of course, and the scale of what needs to b…

[deleted]

Re: On finally learning to program at the age of 40

#160

Post by throwaway17_17 »

joelbluminator wrote: post #74
throwaway17_17 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought for a moment I blacked out and posted to HN without knowing it. I too am a 38 years old attorney who learned CS/Programming late in life. I haven’t had any success in finding relevant job openings for my particular coding knowledge, but I keep looking. Just knowing you exist gives me hope I may still be able to break into tech, at some level. And given that Hurricane Laura just decimated my city ( and my ho…

If you're capable of becoming a lawyer you're capable of becoming a programmer. 38 ain't that old. But why drop being attorney?

Lawyering is not really the problem, I have a quite successful career. I am mostly content to just program in my spare time and programming/automating those areas of my practice where there is value. But, and it’s probably more specific to my situation, but I do almost exclusively criminal defense work and it can be tiring, I’ve been at it long enough that I could use a change of focus. Biggest problem for me is that my areas of knowledge/interest for CS/programming is limits solely focused on low level, performance oriented domains, programming language theory And type theory. That is not the most marketable skill set, but I love doing it.
Post reply on HN