Yes. But, IMO, you're going to find it in more 'mature' verticals; places where reliability and commitment are valued and lived out daily. IMO, that's going to be in the embedded space or in a larger company that quite possibly doesn't 'sell software'.
Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#1237yo here. Like you, I have met ridiculously smart, knowledgeable and young people and came to the conclusion that I am never ever going to be able to be like them. Heck!!! If I had not met them first hand, I would not have an idea how far the gap in front of me is.
But it seems that you do not seem to realize how far the gap behind yourself really is. If there is one capital sin in programmers, it has to be our hubris... and you seem rather humble to me. Of course it is possible that your self esteem is accurate, in which case you would be rather incompetent or at least mediocre. But if that was the case, how did you make it this far into the craft?
No, in my experience mediocre programmers don't go around thinking about "the pursuit of mastery". You really have to consider the possibility that you have a severe case of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome! If that's the case I can only advice to keep going, do the best you can and not worry too much about comparing yourself with others.
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#13You said that you do not have a natural talent for developing, so your issue is about raw skill rather than age.
Maybe you should specialize further in a subject area that you know well. Carrying one big "weapon" that you are skilled at would be better than carrying 50 like a "ninja".
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#1437yo here. Like you, I have met ridiculously smart, knowledgeable and young people and came to the conclusion that I am never ever going to be able to be like them. Heck!!! If I had not met them first hand, I would not have an idea how far the gap in front of me is. But it seems that you do not seem to realize how far the gap behind yourself really is. If there is one capital sin in programmers, it has to be our hubr…
I'm not one to put stock into the myriad of psychological conditions that people seem to carry around like badges ("Look at me, I'm ADD!"), so I followed your link with a dismissal at the ready. Then I read something in there that was close to my own words..."Proof of success is dismissed as luck"...I about choked!
Not that I'm ready to go around saying "I have a disorder, yay!", but it was certainly an interesting concept to be introduced to.
And before I get angry comments about my ADD comment, my son has been diagnosed ADD, so I make that snide remark knowing full-well what his life is like.
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#15Yes. But, IMO, you're going to find it in more 'mature' verticals; places where reliability and commitment are valued and lived out daily. IMO, that's going to be in the embedded space or in a larger company that quite possibly doesn't 'sell software'.
I feared that that may be the fact of the matter. Not that I need sexy in my daily life, but something that offered the chance to grow would be nice. That's not been an easy find in the larger companies.
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#16I'm 26 so I can't speak at all to what a 40ish developer needs to do to get a job. My advice is what I'd give to anyone asking what I think you're asking regardless of age. I'm also assuming you have no desire for entrepreneurship or management. Since you have a steady and mostly happy job, focus on differentiating yourself after hours. Build out your github profile (my current focus since it's entirely private proje…
A desire for entrepreneurship? Definitely. But I don't have any side projects or ideas that I feel would be unique enough or adopted well enough in an open market. They're great toys for me, but my girlfriend just doesn't understand them. :)
And a big NO to management. I love coding. I want to die while refactoring. Or die while coding, then come back from the grave to refactor later.
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#17I'm 26 so I can't speak at all to what a 40ish developer needs to do to get a job. My advice is what I'd give to anyone asking what I think you're asking regardless of age. I'm also assuming you have no desire for entrepreneurship or management. Since you have a steady and mostly happy job, focus on differentiating yourself after hours. Build out your github profile (my current focus since it's entirely private proje…
A desire for entrepreneurship? Definitely. But I don't have any side projects or ideas that I feel would be unique enough or adopted well enough in an open market. They're great toys for me, but my girlfriend just doesn't understand them. :) And a big NO to management. I love coding. I want to die while refactoring. Or die while coding, then come back from the grave to refactor later.
I'm the same way in a lot of respects. I'd love to wake up every morning to tweak a product or SaaS business that I live off of but I haven't gotten that spark from anything yet.
What language(s) do you work with?
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#18I think you need to dismiss the myth that your 'forming' years are behind you. I work for a few research groups at a large, prominent southern university. There are people who get engineering phds in their 30s and 40s. You have coded a large chunk of your life and have an excellent framework to bolt stuff on to. There is always a job market for an enthused developer that doesn't believe in his own hype. You don't hav…
I guess what I meant is I see a lot of guys in the group who are younger (20-25) with more senior guys trying to "form" them into what they feel is a "good" developer. I've been around long enough to have developed my own ideas, and while I'm always open to having my views influenced and changed over time, I'm not going to sit down and have someone tell me "this is what you need to do to be good like me".
Your note about building stuff on your own is something I constantly do. I try to keep at least a couple projects going at home for the purpose of practice and incorporation of advancing technology. I don't have my finger on the pulse of everything, but I'm by no means being left behind.
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#1937yo here. Like you, I have met ridiculously smart, knowledgeable and young people and came to the conclusion that I am never ever going to be able to be like them. Heck!!! If I had not met them first hand, I would not have an idea how far the gap in front of me is. But it seems that you do not seem to realize how far the gap behind yourself really is. If there is one capital sin in programmers, it has to be our hubr…
I'm not one to put stock into the myriad of psychological conditions that people seem to carry around like badges ("Look at me, I'm ADD!"), so I followed your link with a dismissal at the ready. Then I read something in there that was close to my own words..."Proof of success is dismissed as luck"...I about choked! Not that I'm ready to go around saying "I have a disorder, yay!", but it was certainly an interesting c…
Imposter syndrome is incredibly common among very successful people, which as much as we might hate to admit it, most developers are.
Re: Do middle-aged non-ninja developers belong?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
A desire for entrepreneurship? Definitely. But I don't have any side projects or ideas that I feel would be unique enough or adopted well enough in an open market. They're great toys for me, but my girlfriend just doesn't understand them. :) And a big NO to management. I love coding. I want to die while refactoring. Or die while coding, then come back from the grave to refactor later.
I'm the same way in a lot of respects. I'd love to wake up every morning to tweak a product or SaaS business that I live off of but I haven't gotten that spark from anything yet. What language(s) do you work with?
Work with or are competent at? :)
For the last 8 or so years, the jobs have been C#/.Net. Before that, Delphi. Before that, C and C++ (quite a while ago). There's also been a touch of Ruby, a couple days of PHP, and an odd smattering of x86 assembly.