If you're turning 30, you're entering your fourth decade, not your third.
Does life end after 35?
111–120 of 228 posts
Re: Does life end after 35?
#112I often worry about whether my startup clock is running out. I'm closer to 30 than 20, finishing up graduate school, and for the most part feel young. But other than the pediatrics ward, the only other time I start to feel my age is when attending some of these startup events. What I try to keep conscious of is knowing what's reported in the media and what isn't, which are often 2 completely different worlds. On Tech…
> I often worry about whether my startup clock is running out. I'm closer to 30 than 20
To be fair the largest demographic of startup founders is in the 30-39 age bracket. While successful twenty-somethings with big exits is something the press likes to cover, they are very much outliers.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#113Great story.
I'm 36 and things only seem to be getting better for me, and I know things are only going to get way better. My greatest achievements are ahead of me, not behind me.
Sounds cheesy but it's all in your outlook. Good on you gramps for teaching us yet another lesson in that.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#114I wish I could take this amazing advice for granted. I'm in my late thirties (36) and still can't afford having a baby. As you may guess, one cannot wait till his sixties for that... So, it really depends on what's the meaning of "successful" to you :)
I know it is trite to say, "No one can afford having a kid." but it's really the truth. For me, sure daycare, toys, and food aren't putting me in the poorhouse, but there is no way I can bankroll everything I think my kids deserve.
My problem is my house is 50mq with just one bedroom, and I can't still afford moving to a larger one. Where larger means 2 bedrooms.
Context: in Italy you are supposed to own a house vs renting one. Everything in the society and regulations is organized towards owning it vs renting.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry, you'll eventually grow out of this attitude. Your confidence will increase. You won't have to say stuff like this in an effort to feel better about yourself. Hang in there and good luck.
No I'm serious. Ha. Hows the dating scene in the 40s? I'm going to be there soon. The 30's came on insanely fast.
I don't think it's that different from 30s. In some ways, anything post-college is similar in that your life doesn't revolve around an institution full of single peers.
There's a little bit of magic-numberism that goes on, I suppose: people have ideas about what age means and they'll use it for a proxy (you'll worry about much younger people being annoying or stupid, they'll suspect you'll be staid or weird). But for the most part, everybody who's looking is still basically looking for the right connection.
The only practical effects I've seen are around two clocks:
* the family clock: some people are more anxious to have kids before they get too much older, some people have decided the window is done (which changes who they can pair up with).
* the midlife crisis clock: people start trying harder to see if they can make their life exactly what they want, or insert something they wished they had when they were younger.
These might be the same clock, though. And they have been known to strike well before the 40s. :) YMMV.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#116I wish I could take this amazing advice for granted. I'm in my late thirties (36) and still can't afford having a baby. As you may guess, one cannot wait till his sixties for that... So, it really depends on what's the meaning of "successful" to you :)
I know it is trite to say, "No one can afford having a kid." but it's really the truth. For me, sure daycare, toys, and food aren't putting me in the poorhouse, but there is no way I can bankroll everything I think my kids deserve.
There is no reason you should bankroll everything your kids deserve. It's ok not to have some things. So many enjoyable things are either free or very cheap, that this doesn't matter
Re: Does life end after 35?
#117I turned 40 last year, and I am loving it. I miss the physical resilience of being in my 20s, but I wouldn't trade where I am now to go back to my 20s. I grew up relatively sheltered in New England, and moved to NYC to teach as soon as I graduated from college. I spent my 20s teaching in the city and bicycling around North America in the summers. At 29, I moved to Alaska. I spent my 30's climbing mountains, doing mou…
You guys have trouble getting dates with attractive girls?
I just turned 40 as well, and I found that, last year, younger (20-30) year old women seemed more interested in me than ever. While I was in Chicago on a long consulting gig, I briefly dated a gal who was 24 and smoking hot. Didn't seem to bother her.
I was talking to a much younger female friend of mine once, about this subject, and she confirmed something another female friend had told me, which is that women often find older guys more attractive. Apparently you look more "distinguished" as you age. Now there is, obviously, a point of diminishing returns that comes along eventually. But I keep hearing women tell me that a 24 year old woman (for example) will have no objection to dating a 40 year old man.
Being self conscious about this point, I've asked a number of other women (including random women sitting next to me on airplanes, etc., who theoretically have no reason to be dishonest) and time and time again I've been told that this effect is real.
Another female friend also admitted that some women do consider that factor that older men tend to be further along in their careers, and correspondingly have more money, status, power, prestige, etc. OTOH, she was one of the few who said she would not date a guy who was more than about 6 or 7 years older than her, at most. shrug
Re: Does life end after 35?
#118Great reminder. I am turning 32 early next year and started teaching myself programming this year. Sometimes doubt creeps up on me and makes me feel like I am wasting my time, but stuff like this helps. Onward!
Well done, keep it up! I am 30 in a few months and already a developer so it is great to see someone marginally older than me just taking it up. Out of interest, what did you do before?
Still currently in software sales. I am taking the long view and expect to be in sales for the next year or two or three as I begin applying what I am learning to actually building.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#119My life finally kicked into gear when I was 38. NASA hired me.
Since then I finally realized my dream to travel around the world professionally as a developer, participated in multiple startups, wrote a well-received book, found the woman of my dreams, and changed possibly hundreds of lives.
Post-35 rocks!
Re: Does life end after 35?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I came up with the idea for my startup when I was 47. I don't expect it to be able to make a living at it until I'm 49. Age? Pffth. Then again, I'm not hacking together "Facebook for cats" and hoping for some zeitgeist to make it magically successful while buckets of venture capital rain down on my head, either. A college kid would never have come up with what I'm building, because they wouldn't realize the problem I…
"A college kid would never have come up with what I'm building, because they wouldn't realize the problem I'm trying to solve actually exists." This is such a key point. Sometimes it takes years, if not decades, of experience to even know that the problem exists. Put another way, if the problem can be solved by a 22-year-old with no experience in the field, there's a good chance they've misunderstood the problem.
cough(Soylent)cough