Talented in terms of general knowledge and practical skills
Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
1–10 of 186 posts
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#2I work with a 'rockstar' programmer in his mid 30s. This guy can hammer out good code ridiculously fast and probably does close to half the total work on our team of 8.
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#3Old, like 50-60.
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#4I actually haven't met many being a scientific programmer in a science with little need for programming. So, I guess I'm the most talented. I was at my best in my 40's, but at 72 I'm still very good, but slow.
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#5Late 30s up to late 60s for people who consistently do stuff right on the first try regardless of complexity ( and I only say late 60s because everybody over about 35 has a pension in our industryn so they all retire when they hit their 60s). In aerospace there isn't as much age discrimination as on startup culture, and we are blessed with a lot of these fantastic senior engineers.
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#640+
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#740+
I always wonder about ageism in tech referenced regularly here. Without a doubt the rockstars I know are more experienced and consequently older. If you exclude older software engineers you're probably excluding the best talent and thus can't claim to hire only the top x% of talent.
Note: I don't belong to this group in age or talent.
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#8One of the most talented engineers I ever met was 24. He built a 3D engine in JavaScript for fun as well as a raycaster for fun. He also enjoyed challenging himself in all sorts of interesting ways like doing Advent of Code in C++.
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#9the majority 40+, one around 38 one in early 30s
Re: Ask HN: How old were the most talented software engineers you've met?
#10How about this 9 year old speaking at ReactNYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbiryVTIJ4Q
edit: removed gender