[deleted]
Does life end after 35?
201–210 of 228 posts
Re: Does life end after 35?
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
> whether people also carry the youthful mindset of always being ready to spot problems, and do something about it. I don't think that's a particularly youthful mindset. Indeed, much of the trend of Silicon Valley right now is the opposite: spot places where you can apply a "social something" even if there's no real underlying problem. As a practical matter, people who are young tend to lack the experience to know wh…
also, 20-somethings won't complain when you work them to death
It's also easier to under pay 20-somethings
Re: Does life end after 35?
#203end after 35? i am touching 39 and getting ready to start my real startup. My partners are all few years older than me. I never wanted to be in a job and have been running my services company for the last 12 years. While the current business is doing fine, past few years I had this increasing urge to break out from the services mould and "create" something of our own. Couple of months back I took the decision to take this plunge. We have structured our existing business so that it would continue to run in the hands of my partners while I am venturing out and doing our thing. So yes, to outsiders or even friends and family it might feel a little late to start out afresh I am all loving it and living every moment of it!
Re: Does life end after 35?
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's how I look at it. It's not the decimal number of years since your birth, but the phase in your life that closes doors. In tech, you constantly need to keep up to date on the latest technologies, read publications and go to conferences, because experience gets stale very fast. It's also easier (than in fields like medicine or law) for junior techies to get up to speed in experience, because they can skip the de…
the "latest technologies" thing is questionable. A COBOL programmer can still charge the highest hourly rate of anyone in the industry, because surviving COBOL programs must be very valuable (or else they would have been replaced.) In the world where App Academy and the like are churning out iPhone developers, Ruby on Rails programmers, and Javascript (uh, what's the word for person who works in JS?.... ) advocates i…
A phrase like 'Surviving Cobol programs' suggests you have the wrong idea. The idea that there is dinosaur code from the 1960's still chugging along, and occasionally in need of emergency repair by a highly paid grey haired wizard is a myth. There is still some demand for Cobol programmers because new projects are still being written in Cobol. You'd be surprised about their age as well. Often by smaller to medium sized shops, because they lack the resources to change course and retrain or replace everyone, like the big companies did.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the hints. I already do regular exercises and keep my weight more or less - it's just getting harder every year. With 30 I never had to think much about this while with 40 it has become an annoying regular routine I have to go through.
If you're not already, look into doing a couple of resistance training sessions per week. You don't have to be He-man lifting huge weights, in fact you're better not to be. Focus on core and "all of body" movements. You'll not only feel stronger and look healthier, you'll also burn a lot of energy. And as you get older, maintaing strength and flexibility guards against aches, pains and injury.
I'm currently using variations of the 7-minute workout (7-min.com) + some minor weight lifting.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can tell the difference between a bald guy with a shaved head vs. a guy with a full head of hair with a shaved head. I'd bet the social advantages of hair still belong to the full-head-of-hair-shaved guy.
The older guy will almost certainly have more experience, more confidence and more money. A young guy with a shaved head, if he isn't a Marine, is an emo or a hipster.
Living in Germany shaved heads are unfortunately also a right-wing political statement. Neo-nazis are using shaved heads for recognition and are known as "Glatzen" (skinheads). Which I think is one reason that you see only very few other people here doing that. Might be good reason for more people shaving their head so the nazis start to lose this symbol, but that takes some self-confidence.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just some unwarranted advice, the energy thing can be changed with proper diet and exercise, I'm 35 and it's amazing what a difference eating paleo and exercising 3+ times a week has made.
I agree entirely. It's amazing how tone deaf one can get to this advice, people kept giving it to me. I'm 33 (soon to be 34), and fitter than I ever was in my 20s, with more energy. Difference? Eating differently (low carbs, high protein), and exercising 3 times a week. I also stopped smoking a year ago. Quality of sleep is also way up there now.
Did all of that as well. Stopped smoking (over half a decade ago, so that was around your age I guess), reduced drinking (~1 glas of wine per week), I always did excercises (just have to do it far more seriously now the older I get as I no longer build muscles that easy) and eating far more healthy by now (although somewhat more since I stopped smoking as that had replaced my breakfasts back then). Less general movement due to working from home since a few years (no more walking to a job... that makes some difference, but I still walking a lot as I live without a car).
It all helps - really does. Just doesn't stop aging :-)
Re: Does life end after 35?
#208I 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…
The only real advantage a 20 year old has over a 40 year old is that a 20 year old body can survive insane working hours, skipped sleep, sleeping under the desk, etc. Also, they don't have families and kids yet. That's why some companies want 20 year olds.
Edit: I'm 39, and I'm finally hitting my stride. I'm a far better programmer now than I was even 5 years ago.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am skeptical of the 60-80 hours thing. It seems like more of a macho thing than a real requirement. The problem is that when you workaholic yourself your productivity per unit time drops, so you're spending more hours but doing as much as you might do in shorter bursts of more focused time. In some cases it's worse... you get total burnout.
The 60-80 hours thing is how computer peeps express their machismo. If we were jocks, we would do like 1000 pushups or something. If you need to spend that much time getting it off the ground, you are doing it wrong.
I see more value in accomplishing stuff in as little hours as possible. It's not about the hours, it's about what you get done.
And once you get stuck, it can be more productive to leave the computer and get some sleep, eat, walk, take a shower, etc. The best ideas or solutions come to you when you're doing something else.
To me, saying you work 60-80 hours means you're either doing something very simple, or you're not doing much at all.
Re: Does life end after 35?
#210A similar question was asked on Quora recently: https://www.quora.com/Silicon-Valley/What-do-people-in-Silic... Some of the companies and founders' ages compiled from the answers: - Zynga: 41 - LinkedIn: 36 - Salesforce: 35 - Intel: 41, 39 - Qualcomm: 52, 50 - Juniper Networks: 42 - Wikipedia: 35 - Pandora: 35 - GigaOm: 39 - Zipcar: 42 - TechCrunch: 35 - Craigslist: 42 - Netflix: 37
That's really inspiring. Relying on the facts above, life Starts at 35! -This is the the age when experience adds to the energy one has.
And at the same time demotivating, if considering that they have founded their first start-up in earlier years.