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Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

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Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#391

Post by hpen »

paulcole wrote: post #375
thomaslord wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to start by acknowledging that's a totally legitimate perspective. I'm curious though - do you think you'd be fine with only doing walks and TV for 40+ hours a week? Personally I got interested in computers and programming very early, and at first it was 100% a leisure activity. It stayed at roughly that level of exciting for me until probably 6 months to a year into being employed as a developer, but it's no…

I know I’d be fine with it. I took 3 years off from working (lived frugally off savings) and that is basically all I did. Purposely avoided anything that would be considered “productive work.” I mean I read some books and rode my bicycle, too. But my time was pretty much just watching TV/movies and laying around. Best time of my life by far. I cringe when I tell someone about it and they are like, “oh but didn’t that…

This sounds like absolute hell to me

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#392

Post by [deleted] »

vecinu wrote: post #389
pxsant wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not retired because I don't want to live on social security alone. That would be a bummer.

What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#393

Post by dorkwood »

paulcole wrote: post #375
thomaslord wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to start by acknowledging that's a totally legitimate perspective. I'm curious though - do you think you'd be fine with only doing walks and TV for 40+ hours a week? Personally I got interested in computers and programming very early, and at first it was 100% a leisure activity. It stayed at roughly that level of exciting for me until probably 6 months to a year into being employed as a developer, but it's no…

I know I’d be fine with it. I took 3 years off from working (lived frugally off savings) and that is basically all I did. Purposely avoided anything that would be considered “productive work.” I mean I read some books and rode my bicycle, too. But my time was pretty much just watching TV/movies and laying around. Best time of my life by far. I cringe when I tell someone about it and they are like, “oh but didn’t that…

Are you saving up to do it again? I want to do something similar but I find it hard to justify the cost. I also feel like my family would constantly hassle me about it, which seems like it would offset any sort of relaxation or enjoyment I might get from the experience.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#394

Post by SiVal »

ecpottinger wrote: post #372
fyfy18 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you find your brain works and how productive you are compared to say 20 years ago? My father is in his late 70s and gets quite tired during his day - I wonder if you keep working it keeps the brain more active. Also it must be weird going to a retirement party for someone who is 15 years younger than you :D

AAARRHHH! A friend has been telling me about her dad, he was full of life and when he came up to my cabin he was a whirlwind of activity. But after they sold the house (he loved gardening) and moved into a condo where there is little to do she can see him going downhill month by month. Before he had a purpose in his life (gardening and house maintenance), now he just has the sit around or go on bike trips. It is a sh…

It sounds as though your friend urgently needs to investigate service opportunities for her dad. Sometimes when people discover how unexpectedly useful they are to others, it's like a psychological vitamin that was missing.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#395

Post by jetti »

manish_gill wrote: post #319
jkingsbery wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you go about getting your phd? Did you take a break from paid work to go to school? Did you work on your thesis nights/ weekends? Do you feel like you learned from your advisors, some if whom I'd imagine were younger than you? Did you study an area related to your work at the time? Or did you use it to learn a new area?

+1 I'm deeply interested. Been thinking a lot about doing a Masters in AI/ML but I'd rather not stop working. Been considering part time masters programs but finding them is tricky.

I did my Master’s part-time at DePaul University with almost all of the program online while I was working. They have an AI track but I am not sure how good it is.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#396

Post by bcrosby95 »

pedrocx486 wrote: post #154
lerax wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Coding JS on keyboard is already bad enough.

It's a bit sad that people today still "fanboy" against a lang, like a lot of people still do for PHP (which has absolutely improved from the absurdity it was). JS followed the same path, ES2016 is an absolute dream to code on. Maybe I'm biased? PHP paid my bills for a long time and currently I'm a front-end developer that works mostly with Angular (but sometimes I jump into the .NET Core backends). I love JS and TS,…

I don't really post anti-Javascript commentary, but I have an intense hatred for it because I disliked it and I had to use it for 10 years because it was the only client side language for the web. It is a bit irrational at this point, but I'm not a fan of imperative languages these days, and combining that with past experience makes me really not like it.

I don't particularly care about php because I have basically zero experience with it.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#397

Post by gregjor »

boomlinde wrote: post #368
gregjor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the age discrimination comes from the mostly younger staff, not so much the company. Works out the same, of course, when you’re told you aren’t a “good cultural fit.”

A company is its staff

Yes, but company policy and interview decisions don't necessarily match.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#398

Post by sah2ed »

vecinu wrote: post #389
pxsant wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not retired because I don't want to live on social security alone. That would be a bummer.

What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

> What about retirement savings? If you had funded your 401(k) and IRAs with an engineer's salary for this many years you should have many millions to live off of.

Retiring to millions may be true in theory for certain programmers, but certainly not true for all programmers.

Reality is often different for everyone. As the African proverb says: “all fingers are not equal” meaning the outcome of a specific situation can differ across people. For instance, what if s/he had a financially draining medical emergency, forcing them to rejoin the workforce?

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#399

Post by downerending »

mromanuk wrote: post #300
pxsant wrote: post #212

I am 80 years old and still working full time in IT. Although I evolved from pure programming to project management and business analysis the past few years. Originally started out working at Cape Canaveral as a radar and telemetry engineer and moved into programming after I left there. Whenever I interview, I completely ignore the age issue. If the interviewer is to dumb to recognize the value of my knowledge and ex…

Why are you not yet retired? I can think of few strong reasons, but I would love to hear from you. (I started programming at 8, I’m 41 and I have no plans of stopping )

Not quite as old, and but started at tech around the same age. At its core, I still love doing it, even though employers start seriously frowning on hand-on work when you're in your 50s/60s.

Not everything is great: the procession of silly methodologies, the endless train of obviously doomed technologies, and the recent obsession with social justice appearances. But the core of tech is still ripping good fun.

Re: Ask HN: Am I the longest-serving programmer – 57 years and counting?

#400

Post by paulcole »

dorkwood wrote: post #393
paulcole wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I’d be fine with it. I took 3 years off from working (lived frugally off savings) and that is basically all I did. Purposely avoided anything that would be considered “productive work.” I mean I read some books and rode my bicycle, too. But my time was pretty much just watching TV/movies and laying around. Best time of my life by far. I cringe when I tell someone about it and they are like, “oh but didn’t that…

Are you saving up to do it again? I want to do something similar but I find it hard to justify the cost. I also feel like my family would constantly hassle me about it, which seems like it would offset any sort of relaxation or enjoyment I might get from the experience.

Unfortunately I now have a chronic disease that makes constant health insurance a necessity.

Do you mean family like parents/relatives harping from a distance? If so, they’re just jealous and aren’t worth listening to. As long as you’re smart about your money and make a plan to get a job before you’re tapped out, go for it.

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