Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

aarp.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 222 posts

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#51

Post by dronescanfly »

gowld wrote: post #39
tw1010 wrote: post #27

I always found it funny, the idea that age or agism should in any way stop you from achieving cool shit in business. Entrepreneurship is a jungle. Your customers, largely speaking, doesn't know your age or gender or whether or not you went to an ivy league school or anything else. Some career directions certainly do depend on that stuff, but that's mostly because they depend on other people for advancement. But build…

What are some examples of successful businesses that launched and operate without person-to-person contact and negotiations? Purely automated online operations conceal identities, sure, but investors usually know who the entrepreneurs, and major clients and vendors and joint-venture partners do too.

Funny how a lot of people assume that companies can only ever work with investor money...

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#52

Post by cryptozeus »

gowld wrote: post #39
tw1010 wrote: post #27

I always found it funny, the idea that age or agism should in any way stop you from achieving cool shit in business. Entrepreneurship is a jungle. Your customers, largely speaking, doesn't know your age or gender or whether or not you went to an ivy league school or anything else. Some career directions certainly do depend on that stuff, but that's mostly because they depend on other people for advancement. But build…

What are some examples of successful businesses that launched and operate without person-to-person contact and negotiations? Purely automated online operations conceal identities, sure, but investors usually know who the entrepreneurs, and major clients and vendors and joint-venture partners do too.

you dont have to do those things by yourself. Can be delegated.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#53

Post by amenod »

gowld wrote: post #39
tw1010 wrote: post #27

I always found it funny, the idea that age or agism should in any way stop you from achieving cool shit in business. Entrepreneurship is a jungle. Your customers, largely speaking, doesn't know your age or gender or whether or not you went to an ivy league school or anything else. Some career directions certainly do depend on that stuff, but that's mostly because they depend on other people for advancement. But build…

What are some examples of successful businesses that launched and operate without person-to-person contact and negotiations? Purely automated online operations conceal identities, sure, but investors usually know who the entrepreneurs, and major clients and vendors and joint-venture partners do too.

Independent mobile app vendors? Some pretty huge companies are not backed by VC capital or similar because there was no need for it at the start - and no reason to sell (yet) later.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#54

Post by learc83 »

gowld wrote: post #45
TangoTrotFox wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from the chess world, I suspect your hypothesis is correct. I've taught adults and children and all else being equal adults learn and improve vastly faster than children. But the all else being equal part is the catch. Adults often don't put as much effort into the work as children and a big problem is preconceptions that people have difficulty letting go of. I also consider myself some slight degree of proof…

Teaching beginners? Sure, most little kids are immature and don't understand the big picture concepts of general strategy that adults already learned before they started studying chess. And adult many likely already had some chess experience. But Progressing through to expert or world-class? History verifies the conventional wisdom that ages ~12-30 show the greatest gains. And when you look over to things like langua…

If a child tried to learn language the way adults do, they would be far more likely to fail.

The difference in circumstances is likely greater than the difference in brain plasticity past a few years old.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#55

Post by amenod »

dahart wrote: post #23
always_good wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder the same thing trying to learn a new language. I notice the biggest difference between me and a child is that children don't care about messing up. Meanwhile I often have this worthless apprehension of "better not practice Spanish on these Spanish speakers, I might mess up and feel stupid." I tried to learn Spanish like I learned how to program. Now I'm living proof that you can become good enough to read bo…

I suspect adults learn languages a lot faster than kids, when we spend the same amount of time being exposed & practicing. All the polyglots say you have to be willing to mess up a lot and work to shed your fear of feeling stupid. In fact, try to seek it out because that's the primary way you get feedback & learn.

And it is the same with almost everything, including programming. If you are afraid to admit you don't know something you will spend much more time before you learn it. Sure, you are playing with your reputation - but in my experience it is better to have a reputation of a fast learner than the reputation of a know-it-all.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#56

Post by ddebernardy »

tw1010 wrote: post #27

I always found it funny, the idea that age or agism should in any way stop you from achieving cool shit in business. Entrepreneurship is a jungle. Your customers, largely speaking, doesn't know your age or gender or whether or not you went to an ivy league school or anything else. Some career directions certainly do depend on that stuff, but that's mostly because they depend on other people for advancement. But build…

My hat goes to the old lady, but frankly, if you feel the need to code and market something at age 82 then the odds are you're either struggling to make ends meet, which might warrant giving a cold hard look at the pension system in place, or you don't have and never have had much of a life outside of work - no kids or grand-(grand-)children, no hobbies, etc.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#57

Post by octorian »

jdietrich wrote: post #43
bazooka_penguin wrote: post #4

I wonder how much of brain elasticity in as adults is just due to attitude. I generally find kids more eager to jump into new things, while adults are more stubborn and complacent towards new experiences. Once you have money or kids it's a lot easier to just have someone else do it for you. Still, at 82 I imagine most people will start developing issues with memory so it probably isn't an easy feat, and she's found m…

I think that openness and confidence are major factors. Having taught older adults to use computers, one of the major difficulties is getting them past the fear that they might "break" the computer and the need to memorise rote instructions rather than experiment with the interface. The body language is quite distinctive - tentatively pressing keys with an outstretched index finger as if the keyboard might jump up an…

I've seen these exact behaviors countless times, ever since I was the "kid who knows computers" (in the 90's) trying to walk adults through using them.

Oh, and when you ask them to "look at the screen", they're only mentally able to process a 2-square-inch "window area" at any given moment. So you first have to direct their gaze, very specifically, before you can actually expect them to read and process anything. (Of course it doesn't help that many of them used bifocals that made it difficult to actually see anything up close, except maybe a book, without squinting at a weird angle. Not sure if that's still an issue today.)

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#58

Post by optimuspaul »

ddebernardy wrote: post #56
tw1010 wrote: post #27

I always found it funny, the idea that age or agism should in any way stop you from achieving cool shit in business. Entrepreneurship is a jungle. Your customers, largely speaking, doesn't know your age or gender or whether or not you went to an ivy league school or anything else. Some career directions certainly do depend on that stuff, but that's mostly because they depend on other people for advancement. But build…

My hat goes to the old lady, but frankly, if you feel the need to code and market something at age 82 then the odds are you're either struggling to make ends meet, which might warrant giving a cold hard look at the pension system in place, or you don't have and never have had much of a life outside of work - no kids or grand-(grand-)children, no hobbies, etc.

ouch, that's kind of harsh. You make a lot of assumptions.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#59

Post by jrs95 »

dronescanfly wrote: post #51
gowld wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some examples of successful businesses that launched and operate without person-to-person contact and negotiations? Purely automated online operations conceal identities, sure, but investors usually know who the entrepreneurs, and major clients and vendors and joint-venture partners do too.

Funny how a lot of people assume that companies can only ever work with investor money...

If only Rework was required reading...

I honestly think you could make an entire college course just based on the stuff that the Basecamp guys have put out there. I don't necessarily agree with their perspective 100%, but it's valuable to consider vastly different viewpoints.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#60

Post by hapnin »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #2

I know Masako and I think what she has accomplished is pretty remarkable. Her story goes to show that people can accomplish anything they want, regardless of age, if they take joy from it.

I'm 60 years old. I'm teaching myself node.js and related tools. I find great joy in learning anyway but networked computers are still as amazing to me now as they were when I first encountered them in the 70s.

If you ever speak to Masako, please tell her she inspired an old geek in America.

Post reply on HN