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Aging programmer

world.hey.com

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Re: Aging programmer

#2

Post by dijit »

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career.

If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career.

I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

Re: Aging programmer

#3

Post by synergy20 »

dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

40s or 50s are still prime time for programmers, assuming he/she keeps learning and coding and designing.

but those are still of small group, it's like a normal distribution, I read somewhere age wise there are only about 1.5% that are above 50s.

Re: Aging programmer

#4

Post by wpietri »

dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

Two things can be true. 40 is mid-career, and tech's ageism includes it: https://www.businessinsider.com/we-hire-old-people-ageism-te...

Re: Aging programmer

#5

Post by jmfldn »

synergy20 wrote: post #3
dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

40s or 50s are still prime time for programmers, assuming he/she keeps learning and coding and designing. but those are still of small group, it's like a normal distribution, I read somewhere age wise there are only about 1.5% that are above 50s.

Programmers doubled every 5 years for 20 years. That's at least part of the reason.

Re: Aging programmer

#6

Post by amykhar »

Add 13 years, and I could have written this. I must admit I cringed a bit when the author said 40 was old. I still love what I do, and I have no desire to live the manager life of all day meetings.

Re: Aging programmer

#7

Post by w4ffl35 »

wpietri wrote: post #4
dijit wrote: post #2

Here’s something I think a lot of people don’t think on: 40 years old is mid-career. If you expect to retire at 60 (likely 65 these days) and you start working at 20: 40 is smack dab in the middle of your career. I think that notion gets lost when we talk about ageism in tech and then people talk about 40-somethings.

Two things can be true. 40 is mid-career, and tech's ageism includes it: https://www.businessinsider.com/we-hire-old-people-ageism-te...

Limiting a software engineers career to less than 20 years is a pretty fucking idiotic thing to do.

Re: Aging programmer

#9

Post by wpietri »

w4ffl35 wrote: post #7
wpietri wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things can be true. 40 is mid-career, and tech's ageism includes it: https://www.businessinsider.com/we-hire-old-people-ageism-te...

Limiting a software engineers career to less than 20 years is a pretty fucking idiotic thing to do.

Sure. Ageism, sexism, racism, etc, etc, etc, are all fucking idiotic. And yet surprisingly popular. So we have to deal with them.

Re: Aging programmer

#10

Post by krmboya »

I wonder where the genesis is of this idea that programming is young person's game akin to physical sports where speed, explosiveness and endurance matter.

It seems to me that it's an intellectual activity where one should go on for very long honing their skills and becoming better and better at it with age.

Maybe the industry sidelines the older more experienced technical folks at a cost, and that's why there seems to be a reinvention of the wheel several times in the software industry.

I'm curious if there are other technical fields that are similar to programming with regards to ageism.

Wishful thinking maybe, but open-source may help in this regard. As more and more of software is being added to the commons, those who've been there and done that can have a greater influence in driving progress.

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