The Aging Programmer [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#21

Post by mikestew » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:31 PM UTC

cjbgkagh wrote: post #13

ddellacosta wrote: post #8

I appreciated this. Lots of solid advice and positive and pragmatic thinking here about aging in the context of being a programmer, and more generally too. I'll take this opportunity to make a related pitch regarding back pain in particular, which can become more of a problem if you are sedentary as so many programmers are: if you have chronic back issues you owe it to yourself to at least check out Stuart McGill's B…

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility. I am so hypermobile that none of the traditional ergonomics techniques, including physical therapy, work well enough and I have resorted to using a reclining chair. The reclining chair has worked out great and I really wish I had tried it much sooner. I had not considered it earlier because all of the advice I had received was that i…

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility

Boy, that one comes with a whole lot of [citation needed].

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#22

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:34 PM UTC

carschno wrote: post #10

oytis wrote: post #9

There is some good advice, but the way she assumes old people have a lot of money, costs go down because of accumulation of assetes and salaries rise faster than inflation, might not be transferable to everyone in all geographies and generations (only read the slides)

Indeed. That partly seems to be based on the advice to build (save/invest) money while you are younger, which seems a bit contradictory. I suppose everything is easier when you are rich, including ageing.

"Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure does make the bad times easier" - some 40s/50s Hollywood starlet.

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#23

Post by cjbgkagh » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:36 PM UTC

dtdynasty wrote: post #18

cjbgkagh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility. I am so hypermobile that none of the traditional ergonomics techniques, including physical therapy, work well enough and I have resorted to using a reclining chair. The reclining chair has worked out great and I really wish I had tried it much sooner. I had not considered it earlier because all of the advice I had received was that i…

> Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility. This does not seem intuitive to me. Why would this be the case?

I noticed it in general observationally and later found a generic explanation for it.

I used to do behavioral analytics and noticed that programmers tend to have a distinct clustering of behaviors.

I’m pretty sure it’s the TNXB gene, it’s been overlooked because it’s traditionally hard to sequence but modern sequencing 30x or long reads can find SNPs here. A colleague who has the same rare set of behaviors and interest as me and is also hyper-mobile had found that he has a TNXB SNP combination that should by random chance only occur in 1/10K people, I subsequently did a DNA test and found that I too had the same SNPs. I have since collected more samples from friends and colleagues who are world class in their fields and so far 5 of 5 have had the same TNXB SNPs. It also appears that in reality this combination is much more common than random chance due to sexual selection which should underscore how behaviorally impactful it is.

Hyper mobility is considered a spectrum and a theory that I’m yet to prove is that the spectrum is almost entirely down to the number and type of TNXB SNPs. And it appears that people on this spectrum are more likely to be programmers.

Consider the over representation of transgenderism in programming. That same over representation exists in hyper-mobility and I would suggest this is due to a common cause.

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#24

Post by solumunus » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:37 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #21

cjbgkagh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility. I am so hypermobile that none of the traditional ergonomics techniques, including physical therapy, work well enough and I have resorted to using a reclining chair. The reclining chair has worked out great and I really wish I had tried it much sooner. I had not considered it earlier because all of the advice I had received was that i…

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility Boy, that one comes with a whole lot of [citation needed] .

I strongly doubt. Why would this be the case?

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#25

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:37 PM UTC

dtdynasty wrote: post #18

cjbgkagh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility. I am so hypermobile that none of the traditional ergonomics techniques, including physical therapy, work well enough and I have resorted to using a reclining chair. The reclining chair has worked out great and I really wish I had tried it much sooner. I had not considered it earlier because all of the advice I had received was that i…

> Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility. This does not seem intuitive to me. Why would this be the case?

[deleted]

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#26

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

monsieurgaufre wrote: post #4

zug_zug wrote: post #2

Looks to be 100% about aging, but I don't see anything specific to programming

We're lucking that aging has not impact on programming, then.

I'm 61 and I'm definitely aware that by many metrics I am a worse programmer than I was 10 years ago.

By some other metrics, I'm better, and I could still run circles around most younger programmers in terms of architecture/system design.

But it absolutely has an impact.

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#27

Post by kstrauser » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:39 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #11

monsieurgaufre wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're lucking that aging has not impact on programming, then.

I'm not yet 50, I'm "only" in my mid-40s, but for sure advancing in age has had an effect on the way I program code. For sure I won't be able to spend long hours in the night trying to decipher/solve a specific programming problem, I used to do that when I was younger. I also used to type a lot more code, as in, my fingers used to type a lot more, I can't physically afford to do that now because after a certain thres…

I think I write much less code now to solve a given problem, largely due to a few decades of YAGNI experience. Gee, I could build this infinitely flexible inner system to solve this whole class of problems, or I could just write some code to concretely solve today’s problem, and keep it loosely coupled enough that we can replace it wholesale later if we need to.

That, plus a healthy dose of “good enough”, along with a whole lot of “I’ve written this 5 times already” lets me get easily maintainable stuff out the door more quickly than when I started.

If I were hiring, I’d vastly prefer current me to younger me.

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#28

Post by waffletower » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:39 PM UTC

I don't see the words "standing desk" together in the comments yet. I am using one at the moment and later today I will be sitting. It is important to alternate lest you create new issues IMO.

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#29

Post by Jtsummers » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:43 PM UTC

solumunus wrote: post #24

mikestew wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers are much more likely than the general population to have hyper-mobility Boy, that one comes with a whole lot of [citation needed] .

I strongly doubt. Why would this be the case?

Do you mean why would it be the case that a strong claim needs citation? Because it's a strong claim with no evidence (they provided some in another comment, sample size of 5...).

If you mean the claim itself, the person you responded to did not make it.

Re: The Aging Programmer [video]

#30

Post by cjbgkagh » Wed, Jan 08, 2025, 4:51 PM UTC

Jtsummers wrote: post #29

solumunus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly doubt. Why would this be the case?

Do you mean why would it be the case that a strong claim needs citation? Because it's a strong claim with no evidence (they provided some in another comment, sample size of 5...). If you mean the claim itself, the person you responded to did not make it.

The sample is biased and intentionally so, the prior probabilities are pulled from general population statistics. Consider the likelihood of an event that should only occur 1/10K times happening 5 times in a row due to random chance, it is incredibly small.