61–70 of 72 posts
He has a hell of a reputation as an asshole. I don't think anyone besides service employees care that he's old.
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One was a consulting company, and the other person to tell me that was a recruiter as a reason for not submitting me for a job i.e., "they're looking for someone more senior"
See, that's actually quite interesting. Both of those live and die by their reputation, and for both of them, you would have been the "product" - the consultant to send to customers, and the potential recruit to present to companies. As a self-employed consultant I have found that some people get nervous when they find out my age (25, started when I was 23) - presumably because consultants are selling their expertise…
Well, but what if it's true? On the macro scale, I think it's obvious that people are getting smarter. If you compare people now with people 1000 years ago, it is obvious that the average IQ now is higher than it was then. If you compare with people 10k years ago, 100k ago .. no contest. There was a time when calculus was something only the smartest people in the world understood. Now it is a subject routinely taught…
Well, but what if it's true? On the macro scale, I think it's obvious that people are getting smarter. If you compare people now with people 1000 years ago, it is obvious that the average IQ now is higher than it was then. If you compare with people 10k years ago, 100k ago .. no contest. There was a time when calculus was something only the smartest people in the world understood. Now it is a subject routinely taught…
At least, if they make the test the way they're supposed to.
Wait until children learn how to type with their brainwaves. Then you'll be the old slow guy sitting there with the keyboard because your brain won't do that anymore (a la people raised by wolves)
If today's young teenagers (my wife's cousins are glued to their phones, sending hundreds of SMSes a week) are any indication, we have a very strange breed coming down the pipe.
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What types of companies were you interviewing at? I've really never seen anything but ageism in the favor of younger people.
That's really strange. When I was just out of college no one took my work experience during college seriously, they all treated me like I was a clean slate even though I had about three years of part-time experience with two full-time summers. I was constantly told, when I actually got feedback, that I was too inexperienced. I was applying for entry-level positions, which these days means you need 1-2 years experienc…
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Like Dave Winer, I am also 54 and absolutely do not care what anyone else thinks about it. Perhaps that explains why you are also less likely to perceive it when it happens. Perhaps Dave Winer is more sensitive to this issue and that explains why he notices it more. I doubt that he is imagining this since you are one of the few people in IT that I have heard having a contrary experience. Perhaps you are simply an out…
I am guessing it could have a lot to do with the fact that Dave Winer is known to be a bit of a crank! He's historically gotten into a lot of ugly arguments, regardless of his age. It seems crazy to me now, but I worried most about ageism when I was around 38. I had just started a job in the Bay Area where almost everybody else was in their early twenties. To the extent that there was a problem, it was all in my head…
If you happen to be in situation where age discrimination can't effect you, well, that's great.
If you think that's an excuse not to consider it as an important social issue, well, that's lousy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am guessing it could have a lot to do with the fact that Dave Winer is known to be a bit of a crank! He's historically gotten into a lot of ugly arguments, regardless of his age. It seems crazy to me now, but I worried most about ageism when I was around 38. I had just started a job in the Bay Area where almost everybody else was in their early twenties. To the extent that there was a problem, it was all in my head…
Well, age discrimination tends to become a personal issue when a person can be effected by it. Age is naturally only one factor in this. If you happen to be in situation where age discrimination can't effect you, well, that's great. If you think that's an excuse not to consider it as an important social issue, well, that's lousy.
I think there are a lot of disadvantages that could drag you down: you're losing your hair, you're short, you're ugly, your parents put you through a rotten childhood, and so on. But you can always find examples of people who have those same disadvantages and are thriving anyway.
I knew this girl once who thought she was ugly. She mentioned that it goes beyond mere social conditioning, that even newborn babies react more favorably to pretty people. So I said: who would a newborn react more favorably to, a pretty stranger or her own homely mother?
If I am facing some type of disadvantage, I am always going to be looking for a way to stack the deck in my favor to get around it.
I don't think it's the age, but Winer is out of touch on a lot of issues. His primary computing time is in a scripting language / environment that he built in the early 90s. Much like RMS, he has missed the train and while still has important ideas is frequently only able to implement them in a way that few others can experience. That and his new found mobile passion is just hilarious to witness. Confused about SMS a…
This isn't really new. He's always been a bit fuzzy on technologies; neither RSS nor XML-RPC really show a deep understanding of XML, the scripting environment which I became deeply familiar with in college was always a bit weird about some of the fundamentals, etc. On the other hand, his resume blows mine away; his list of truly independent inventions may not be very long but the list of technologies that he is basi…
9 times out of 10 I'd take the former over the latter...