Do You Really Want to be Doing this When You're 50?

Not saying that would be an easy job or not stressful but it's a better use of that persons skills and experience.

I remember an industry teacher once saying to me that "You'll probably never put '10 years experience in Technology X' on a CV." because by the time it's been around for that long it will be pretty much obsolete. The fundamentals of computer science won't change (big-O, synchronised distributed systems, logic etc.) so I suppose it will just come down to re-learning the modern day tech.

But that's the same for lawyers (fundamental laws / processes unchanged, need to be up-to-date on modern rulings and changes), doctors (fundamental human physiology unchanged, need to be up-to-date on modern techniques and drugs) sales assistants (knowing how to greet and assist a member of the public never changes, need to know how to use the latest cash register / Square-up card reader terminal).

I suppose you can't escape it in another industry. I still stand by my point that your skillset as you get older will make you more appropriate for other duties.

That said, I sure hope it's not my day job by then. Programming is much more fun when you're just doing it for yourself than when you're solving other people's problems to extract money.

Although even those projects can be made fun by making a valid business case about cool things to clients.

If I wanted to rag on programming, I'd point out how many dysfunctional programming workplaces we have, or how our tools are always 100 times more complex than they need to be, or how setting up and managing the programming environment can take the joy right out of actually doing the work. (I could go on at length here)

But overall it's a great place to be. We're the Michelangelos of the great age of machine intelligence which is yet to come. We're sketching out how it's all going to look. We're at the forefront of solving incredible problems and creating magical devices. A guy told me something back in my 20s when I was just getting started that rings true today: technology development is the one area where you can create your own reality. Not only in terms of a virtual reality, but in terms of how you want your work day to go, how you want to interact with your peers, how you get compensated, how you spend your free time. It's all up to you. This is completely unlike many other professions such as doctors where everything is tightly regimented.

I worry that as the job of programming matures, we are losing track of that fundamental insight. One of the reasons I like Agile and Scrum is, when done correctly, it liberates the teams and takes them back to the way programming should be.

It is rarely done correctly.