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

Aging programmer

world.hey.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 375 posts

Re: Aging programmer

#101

Post by RockingGoodNite »

tartoran wrote: post #55
khaledh wrote: post #47

I'm 47 years old, I'm a staff data engineer, and the fire in me to solve problems through programming is as strong as ever, and I expect it to last until I retire. I have zero interest in managing people, but I enjoy working with colleagues and teams to solve complex problems (through as simple solutions as possible). I learn something new everyday, and my hunger for learning is insatiable. Note: I get contacted by r…

But you’re also more expensive and picky about where you work and what tools you’d use. That natural ignorance and inexpensiveness lends younger devs a competitive advantage

Fine craftsmen are very picky about their tools. Companies that rely mostly on hiring "natural ignorance" will have representative software stacks.

Re: Aging programmer

#102

Post by dclowd9901 »

Didn’t know I needed a write up like this, but I did. I’m hitting 40 in February and naturally it’s causing me to… feel things. Lingering in the back of my mind since I started my career was a worry that someday I’d become too old for it.

It still hasn’t felt like that as I’ve aged but nevertheless the worry still lingers. It’s nice to see I’m not alone in these worries and maybe I’m worried for nothing.

Re: Aging programmer

#103

Post by samatman »

Donald Knuth was 40 years old when he published the first version of TeX.

We could make a long list like this. Enormous amounts of high-quality, game-changing software is written by coders in their 40s and 50s, often with a couple more decades of stewardship and expansion of their works.

Re: Aging programmer

#104

Post by indymike »

I'm just over 50. Here's ultimately what I think about aging and programming:

Programming is fun. I enjoy it now, more than I ever have. Three times I've created software that has built a business and livelihood for others. That is super satisfying, and at the same time, usually the source of things that are not as fun as programming (taxes, accounting, lawyers, nasty people).

When I run across other programmers my age, I see a lot of unhappy people, and that is kind of sad. A lot of the unhappiness comes from one of three places:

* Not leaning new things and discovering that the isn't demand for what you did in the 90s and 00s. Career prospects are dim, and bitterness sets in. It's easily solved by picking up something new - but be careful, new doesn't mean things 15-20 years old. So many people jump out of one old tech into another one that is about to be old.

* A lack of interest in leading, and being hypercritical of leaders. Here's the deal: if you leading the team, you pick what you want to work on, and you pick how you build. If you are just on the team, you'll always be on the wrong side of decisions. It's easy to lead a small team, and experience is really the backbone of really, really great small "l" leadership.

* Pathological drive to be correct at all times. You know, they person that can't let the smallest mistake go un-punished, every bad decision second-guessed and being willing to die on the hill of correctness over the smallest mistake. This drive makes you good a programming, but it makes relationships with others terrible, and leads to being isolated, alone, passed over and unhappy. It's really hard, but learning to pick your battles and understand that battles can be won and jobs lost really goes a long way.

That said, there's an awful lot of aging, talented, experienced developers out there that are doing great things, and having fun doing it. Find a way to keep it fun.

Re: Aging programmer

#105

Post by distances »

gardenhedge wrote: post #24

I've moved out of coding every day at work because I've gotten 'too senior' but my goal is to move jobs to get back into it and probably spend at least the next 5 years coding. What I do now is so high level that I can't see myself doing it for the next 25 years. That will bring me close enough to 40. I don't really see me stopping coding then.

I don't get why you'd be too senior to code if you like it. And I was very surprised to see the article author calling himself an aging programmer already at 40. I'm fast approaching that age and I feel I'm more productive than ever.

At some point reading articles like this I was mildly worried about being employable as a programmer later in life. But not any longer. The amount of work seems to be ever increasing, and open positions get filled with middling talent at the face of persistent lack of skilled programmers. Seems like anyone with even a sprinkling of motivation and passion will not go without work for long.

Re: Aging programmer

#106

Post by remote_phone »

therealdokks wrote: post #33
sys_64738 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of programmers who are 35+ can struggle to find further opportunities as the more senior you are the less available those opportunities are and the more expensive you are. Lots of companies only want young people who are naive and have limited distractions outside of work. So, really, programming as a field is front loaded and the longer you stay in the business over 35 then the luckier you have been. But make…

Hmmm as a 53 year old programmer I've had the exact opposite experience. Because of the large diversity of my skills I have more offers for work than ever before.

I’m also in my 50s. My last job search got me 6 offers, from startups to FAANG. I’ve only accelerated my career as I’ve grown older.

Re: Aging programmer

#107

Post by dahart »

atemerev wrote: post #38
awesomegoat_com wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my mind, young male have a lot of hormones that make them compete and it shows. There seems to be clear behavioral change in the average programmer as they age. Later in life (oftentimes with family), they do not have biological set-up to code 14 hours a day whole year as they did before. Obviously, outcoding everybody else is sometimes considered as a value and other times it is not. Shrug.

I never ever coded 14 hours a day except in competitive programming. Doing it at work would be insane.

I did, multiple times for extended periods, and it was insane, yeah. Games and movies. I prefer to not do that anymore, so in that sense I’m doing less work as I age and choose to avoid insane overtime in favor of maxing out at mild overtime. I think I’m coding better now though, more productive, partly by being more choosy, partly from more experience, partly from making more rational decisions when not low on sleep and exhausted from overwork and missing friends and family. It is sometimes a problem in the industry that you can’t tell how productive someone is by how much time they spend typing code.

Re: Aging programmer

#108

Post by DMell »

irrational wrote: post #95

40 years old is aging/old?! That was more than a decade ago for me and I definitely didn’t feel aged at the time. I still spend all my time as an individual contributor. Their have been efforts to move me into more senior/management roles and I have refused them all. I know my strengths and working with people isn’t one of them.

I graduated six months ago at 31 and am not starting my career as a junior at 32.

Re: Aging programmer

#109

Post by LostInTheWoods »

thunky wrote: post #23
krmboya wrote: post #10

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…

I"m not sure that the common idea is that younger programmers are more skilled, but rather that they are more in demand. Could be for a variety of reasons, for example: - cheaper - less jaded - easier to "manage" - more willing to do the boring work that the older devs don't want to do - more likely to be on call or work extra hours - less likely to retire next year

>more willing to do the boring work that the older devs don't want to do

No body wants to do the boring work. I think more experienced devs realize that a boring assignment isn't personal, its just business.

Re: Aging programmer

#110

Post by yodsanklai »

scarface74 wrote: post #83
yodsanklai wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you’re still randomly submitting your resume to an ATS trying to prove yourself to companies by reversing binary trees on whiteboards while juggling bowling balls and riding a unicycle on a tightrope, you’re doing it wrong at 40+ years old. I did that at 45 and landed an interesting job at FAANG (and I'm not the only one). I think it's a bit contradictory to think old programmers are still as capable and sharp a…

I didn’t randomly submit my resume to get into a FAANG at 45. When the recruiter reached out to me about an SWE position (that I wasn’t interested in). I kept talking to her and she directed me to a related remote job that I was interested in (cloud consulting - enterprise app dev/cloud architect).

> the recruiter reached out to me about an SWE position (that I wasn’t interested in)

Then it's your preference not to be a programmer. My point was that it's also possible to be a SWE for those who still dig programming at our age. But you have to play by the rules. That being said, I don't think I'll last in such a position until retirement.

Post reply on HN