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Poll: How old are you?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: How old are you?

#61

Post by mindcrime »

Ugh. I turn 40 in 3 days. Thanks for the reminder. :-(

All joking aside, it isn't so bad. EDW's chart above is pretty accurate in some ways. Certainly life doesn't end at 40(ish)...

In my case, the main issues are more joint pain, more random stiffness (after long car rides or something, for example) and other minor physical issues. Well, that and adult-onset (type 2) diabetes. But that's managed with oral medication, diet and exercise, and isn't exactly the end of the world (although I was pretty unhappy the day I was diagnosed).

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#62

Post by paramsingh »

Enquiry wrote: post #43

People aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.

I got linked here through reddit.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#63

Post by kfcm »

pvnick wrote: post #15
jpdoctor wrote: post #11

God these types of polls make me feel like a geezer. Just in case any of you whippersnappers are wondering what it feels like to start hacking in your teens and continue (in one form or another) to be hacking into your late 40s: It is pretty much the same after the first cup of coffee in the morning. Where it differs is the lull in the afternoon makes me want to nap. (So I do.) The drag is that until I look in the mi…

Have you encountered any agism in your line of work? Do you work with "trendy" languages and technologies or do you stick with tried-and-true, enterprisey type of stuff? Have you considered moving into management or have you always just preferred getting down on your hands and knees so to speak and hacking things together?

When first starting out many years (decades?!?) ago, I experienced what could best be called "reverse agism". Guys in their 40s-50s were concerned about hiring a 23-25 year old "wet-behind-the-ears" high-energy "kid" who might make them look bad. And there weren't many twenty-somethings around

Funny thing is, now that I'm in that 45-50 range, things have inverted. Now I rarely see someone above 40 or 45, unless it's management or infrastructure. It's all people in their late 20s, early 30s.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#64

Post by alexvr »

Enquiry wrote: post #43

People aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.

I stumbled upon Feross Aboukhadijeh, and I think he mentioned HN on Twitter or something. It was in a negative context, as in, "Stop constantly checking Hacker News and actually do stuff," and I now understand why. Glad I found it, though!

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#65

Post by xtc »

Enquiry wrote: post #43

People aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.

19 here. I began reading a few of pg's most popular essays when I was 17 then found out about Y Combinator and just dug around a little. Now I'm here.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#66

Post by kfcm »

pvnick wrote: post #15
jpdoctor wrote: post #11

God these types of polls make me feel like a geezer. Just in case any of you whippersnappers are wondering what it feels like to start hacking in your teens and continue (in one form or another) to be hacking into your late 40s: It is pretty much the same after the first cup of coffee in the morning. Where it differs is the lull in the afternoon makes me want to nap. (So I do.) The drag is that until I look in the mi…

Have you encountered any agism in your line of work? Do you work with "trendy" languages and technologies or do you stick with tried-and-true, enterprisey type of stuff? Have you considered moving into management or have you always just preferred getting down on your hands and knees so to speak and hacking things together?

Another consideration is it all depends upon where you're located--geographically, company-wise, and technology area. At least in my observation.

Infrastructure tends to have less ageism than development/software engineering. Large corporations relatively less than start-ups (agism in corps is usually tied to/masked by salary level; "it's about cutting costs"). Midwest/rural areas less than large metros and "hip locations" (due mainly to smaller pools of potential employees).

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#67

Post by nawitus »

Enquiry wrote: post #43

People aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.

Hmm, it's linked to and talked about in a large number of technical blogs and social media. If a young person is interested in programming these days, he or she has probably heard about Hacker News.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#68

Post by mindcrime »

alexvr wrote: post #60

At what age would you say you were smartest, if you have noticed any fluctuation? I hear you mental power peaks at about 22 and begins to decline after 26, but that's pretty depressing, and I don't want to believe it, so if you have experience to counter or confirm this, please share. If you have noticed any decline in "fluid intelligence," is it negligible? Does your wisdom and experience outweigh any mental decline…

At what age would you say you were smartest

Right now (3 days shy of 40).

if you have noticed any fluctuation? I hear you mental power peaks at about 22 and begins to decline after 26, but that's pretty depressing, and I don't want to believe it, so if you have experience to counter or confirm this, please share.

I don't really buy it. Subjectively I don't feel anything that makes me feel less smart or less capable than when I was 22. And given the huge advantage in accumulated knowledge and experience I have now, I feel FAR more capable than my 22 year old self, or my 30 year old self, or even my 35 year old self.

Does your wisdom and experience outweigh any mental decline in real-life situations?

I would say "yes". If my cognitive abilities have declined at all, I think the increase in knowledge and experience far more than compensates for that.

How does age affect creativity?

I think I'm more creative right now than at any other stage of my life.

Re: Poll: How old are you?

#69

Post by YZF »

This curve will probably have good correlation to the penetration of personal computers and the Internet when people are teenagers. The .com boom in the early 2000's (edit- ~'97-'00) brought a lot of new people into the industry and that's going to be reflected (those people are now in their early thirties) and the people in their 20's are those that got exposed to technology as a result of the .com boom.
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