Here we go again. Conversation through HN submissions.
Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
11–20 of 60 posts
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#12It's really interesting to see the perspective of an older peer when it comes to development. I've been writing code since I was 10 (19 years ago) and have been doing it professionally for about eight years. To look back sometimes and see the differences in myself as a coder and wonder about what it will look like going forward is a favorite wandering for my brain.
I think the one thing that I find most common in my career has been coworkers, within 10 years of retirement, that have just given up and no longer put in what's needed to be a coder. I enjoy the company of someone who has had more experience (it's part of how you learn) and love to hear about the battles that the people before me had to fight.
I start my day by asking myself some questions. Where is the technology at right now? Where is it going? How does it relate to my job? How does it relate to my interests? How does it relate to what I've done in the past? Where am I at as a developer? The problem is that people stop asking themselves all of these questions and start weighting towards a few in particular.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#13Good coding is half art, 1/2 science. During creative periods I can go on coding for hours with out even realizing it. When I work like that, I easily go through the night pulling the "midnight oil". The only difference between now (at 50) and then, is the recovery time from the all nighter. Lately I tend to be less motivated to do it so often.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#14Thanks for the post. It's inspirational to see something like this. You seem to have a very good attitude about working and software development / learning and it helps me to feel better and overcome my own sometimes negative attitude. I'll be reading your whole site.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#15I read that as someone who really wasn't able to continue being a chemist into his 50s.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#16Actually burning midnight oil is a myth. I mean we all know the myth: You grab your coffee, black as night and sweet as sin, you sit in front of your computer with your favourite IDE on. Then you code until the sun sets and you go home with a majestic smile on your face. Because, you - the lonely coder - has saved the day. Yet again. I mean I was really into this image when I was 20. Now, after had some experience in…
I've gone to work after staying up all night before, and produced code that looked unfamiliar to me the next day. Some of it had stupid mistakes, but on the other hand, some of it was "I wrote that?" in a good way.
Granted, I'm not writing CompSci research papers on what I do at work, so the difficulty level might have something to do with it.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#17Good coding is half art, 1/2 science. During creative periods I can go on coding for hours with out even realizing it. When I work like that, I easily go through the night pulling the "midnight oil". The only difference between now (at 50) and then, is the recovery time from the all nighter. Lately I tend to be less motivated to do it so often.
Absolutely, I always refer to coding as 'creative logic'. :) The Art of Happiness At Work by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler is a great book. It talks about flow/being in the zone and after reading about that, I've really felt lucky to have experienced that mode of pure focus and true moment oriented existence.
I was never a person that stayed up all night coding, though. I'm a morning person and my body/mind were always like "no way". But, that being said, I have woken up many times at 3 or 4 and cranked all the way through until 7 or 8 that night. So I think it just depends on your natural biorhythms.
I'm not 50 yet, but already am finding it harder and harder to get a 'good day' of coding in with a wife and 8mo old son. Besides distractions galore, my next big loss is sleep. I definitely feel that side and I'm even having a hard time sometimes remembering things in conversation. I think of it as not having my ECC ram. :)
However, like many other postings, I will probably code until I die or until I just can't understand anything anymore. Then I'll probably just back to my 8-bit machines and assembly; the days when things were simpler. The quintessential old man out of step. Heh.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#18On the subject of working a lot of hours, this article argues that a 40-hour work week is optimal (you don't get more done even if you work longer hours) http://www.alternet.org/story/154518/why_we_have_to_go_back_...
Yeah. Everyone is different. I don't have a spouse, kids or dog. I like it when I'm working on a problem and the world goes away for 10-12 hours at a time. I can get a lot of work done in a week where I work 60-70 hours. I'm sure many people can't and on average, 40 hours may be optimal but there is no way that 40 hours is optimal for me when I'm doing something interesting. Having said that, I've also been burnt out…
I for one do have a spouse and a child, no dog though :(
I have worked probably the same amount of hours when I was younger but due to other responsibilities that came up after I got married, I had to stick with the 35 - 40 hours work weeks.
I was recently involved with a very small shop (5 people, 3 full time developers) and it really took a toll on me. I got caught up in a project that had no end in sight and really caused me great frustration and a sense of not accomplishing anything which contributed immensely in my decision to walk away.
Right now I'm taking a long break but still update myself with what is going on in tech & programming in particular. I have always been a coder (only job I ever had) and I can't see myself doing anything else.
BTW, I just turned 50 myself. So here's to another 20 years of writing software. Cheers!
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#19Actually burning midnight oil is a myth. I mean we all know the myth: You grab your coffee, black as night and sweet as sin, you sit in front of your computer with your favourite IDE on. Then you code until the sun sets and you go home with a majestic smile on your face. Because, you - the lonely coder - has saved the day. Yet again. I mean I was really into this image when I was 20. Now, after had some experience in…
I don't think it's about time/schedule but rather intensity. I would agree in that the majority of application code really is just little bits of accumulation - piling on another feature or fixing another bug. Those are things you do optimally if you're lazy, knocking off a few each day while spending the rest with non-coding tasks. And with those tasks the slow pace is beneficial in giving yourself room to examine all angles and stop yourself from a trap later on.
You only need to pull the long hours when a big impact is really needed - generally, learning something new or introducing major new concepts into the codebase. With those projects, slicing up the hours is detrimental to understanding of the problem. You still don't want to make an unnecessarily complicated solution, but long hours make necessary complexity easier to tolerate.
Re: Yes I Still Want To Be Doing This at 56
#20Its a matter of perspective and preference. When you are young you don't mind fidgeting with things, leaning their inner working and trying to get something to work. When something is done you can point to it proudly and cry 'I did that'. As you get older you start to lose your patience with technology and sympathize with the user a little. Your perspective could be - 'Why wont this just work !'.
Perhaps it is a matter of patience. I would not know since I'm not 56 yet. OP - A toast to the fire that is still burning within you. May it keep burning for a long time. Have fun writing code.