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35 Over 35

theamericanscholar.org

71–80 of 128 posts

Re: 35 Over 35

#71
I find that I like learning and writing at 35+.

I didn't even start making technical video courses until I was 35 which involved writing close to 1 million words in a few years. That would be roughly 4,000 pages of content in book form.

Come to think of it, 35 is when I started writing a blog too.

Re: 35 Over 35

#72
It really depends on the medium. Writers can continually improve and refine their skillset throughout their lives and that seems to be the case throughout history. Whereas musicians seem to either lose inspiration or interest as they get older, maybe it's just a medium that benefits a lot from the enthusiasm and discovery of youth.

That being said, I do suspect there will be a much greater number of people emerging at older ages over the next few decades as more people opt to not go down the typical path of obligations and more flexible work situations allow for more time to focus on passions (for those who can afford to not be working all the time)

Re: 35 Over 35

#73

I don't understand: Is 35 normally considered too old to make something of yourself by society? I'm turning 28 this month and I feel like I'm quite far ahead compared to my peers, yet feel like I'm absolutely still fumbling through life. And when speaking to friends older than me, the majority seem to still be fumbling through as well. Every rotation around the sun my opinion is solidified that we're all just wingin'…

I don't think it's the age, it's the other life obligations. In my early 20's I was in college. Graduated in 2008 in to the recession and was lucky to have _any_ job. Spent all of my nights learning coding. In my mid-late 20's, starting in 2011, I finally got a crappy job with a pay cut in tech (sort of) doing ad operations. I worked hard and spent the evenings getting better at Java so I could use the Dart For Publi…

Cut down your work week if you can afford it. If you can't afford it, change your spending and saving habits so you can afford it in the future. With the spare time you can focus on interesting pet projects or an interesting side hustle.

Re: 35 Over 35

#74
This is just bizarre. A collection of contemporary nobodies and actually famous authors who happen to be over 35. We're not talking mathematicians here or sprinters; these are (mostly) novelists. Of course there are a lot of them over 35.

Re: 35 Over 35

#75

I don't understand: Is 35 normally considered too old to make something of yourself by society? I'm turning 28 this month and I feel like I'm quite far ahead compared to my peers, yet feel like I'm absolutely still fumbling through life. And when speaking to friends older than me, the majority seem to still be fumbling through as well. Every rotation around the sun my opinion is solidified that we're all just wingin'…

I don't think it's the age, it's the other life obligations. In my early 20's I was in college. Graduated in 2008 in to the recession and was lucky to have _any_ job. Spent all of my nights learning coding. In my mid-late 20's, starting in 2011, I finally got a crappy job with a pay cut in tech (sort of) doing ad operations. I worked hard and spent the evenings getting better at Java so I could use the Dart For Publi…

Surely the tradeoff here is that, provided a company treats you okay, you're more likely to stick around than that colleague (if he's that driven then he's surely constantly looking for new opportunities?) and an employee with a few years knowledge of the codebase is generally worth a lot more than a super skilled newbie.

Depends on the area though, I guess. Video game companies seem to have a preference for working people into the ground.

Re: 35 Over 35

#76
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think maybe it's possible that given a very smart programmer with 1-5 years experience, the value of not having had time to learn the wrong way of doing things far outweighs the value of another 10 or 20 years experience. A lot of our 'best practices' seem curiously tailored toward keeping mediocre developers in check and producing consistent rather than extraordinary results. Maybe our industry just grinds the gre…

What do you think is an example of such a "best practice"?

I mean the classic Java > Lisp decision that Paul Graham is always talking about surely fits the bill.

Re: 35 Over 35

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's the age, it's the other life obligations. In my early 20's I was in college. Graduated in 2008 in to the recession and was lucky to have _any_ job. Spent all of my nights learning coding. In my mid-late 20's, starting in 2011, I finally got a crappy job with a pay cut in tech (sort of) doing ad operations. I worked hard and spent the evenings getting better at Java so I could use the Dart For Publi…

Surely the tradeoff here is that, provided a company treats you okay, you're more likely to stick around than that colleague (if he's that driven then he's surely constantly looking for new opportunities?) and an employee with a few years knowledge of the codebase is generally worth a lot more than a super skilled newbie. Depends on the area though, I guess. Video game companies seem to have a preference for working…

Oh, I left the video game company. It actually wasn't a bad gig, tbh.

Re: 35 Over 35

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's the age, it's the other life obligations. In my early 20's I was in college. Graduated in 2008 in to the recession and was lucky to have _any_ job. Spent all of my nights learning coding. In my mid-late 20's, starting in 2011, I finally got a crappy job with a pay cut in tech (sort of) doing ad operations. I worked hard and spent the evenings getting better at Java so I could use the Dart For Publi…

Cut down your work week if you can afford it. If you can't afford it, change your spending and saving habits so you can afford it in the future. With the spare time you can focus on interesting pet projects or an interesting side hustle.

That's the plan. Just bought a super cheap house to help enable this.

Re: 35 Over 35

#79

I don't understand: Is 35 normally considered too old to make something of yourself by society? I'm turning 28 this month and I feel like I'm quite far ahead compared to my peers, yet feel like I'm absolutely still fumbling through life. And when speaking to friends older than me, the majority seem to still be fumbling through as well. Every rotation around the sun my opinion is solidified that we're all just wingin'…

Everybody is either copying something someone else made up, or making it up as they go along. Most people only try the second strategy when the first one fails.

In regards to this article, I would not be at all surprised if the average age of first publishing for successful authors was well above 35. Is apparently around 45, for successful startup founders.

'Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45' - https://hbr.org/2018/07/research-the-average-age-of-a-succes...

Re: 35 Over 35

#80

I don't understand: Is 35 normally considered too old to make something of yourself by society? I'm turning 28 this month and I feel like I'm quite far ahead compared to my peers, yet feel like I'm absolutely still fumbling through life. And when speaking to friends older than me, the majority seem to still be fumbling through as well. Every rotation around the sun my opinion is solidified that we're all just wingin'…

No, these lists just celebrate the outliers - people who extraordinarily successful. It can't be everyone's goal to make it onto one of these lists, because there are billions of people in the world. The vast majority of us are also fumbling through life, and a few are lucky enough to achieve lots of success. They make it onto these lists because they have an unusual and interesting story. I think the word "success" has become overloaded with some insane expectations, especially in media, or in Silicon Valley circles. I don't think it makes sense to label these writers or entrepreneurs as simply "successful". They're the very top of the field, just like an Olympic gold medalist.

This list is about some of the most popular writers who were over the age of 35 when they became famous. But I was talking to a successful writer on Reddit. They weren't super famous, but they made a good living from writing and selling some YA and fiction. They weren't overnight millionaires, but they did end up starting a small publishing company. They made a solid living, and they were able to raise a family and save for retirement. I don't think they made it to the top of any bestseller lists, but I would still call them a very successful writer.

This is also one of the reasons why I like the Indie Hackers community [1], and also the SaaS podcast [2]. I really like reading stories about people who are building SaaS products that eventually make it $100k per year in revenue. I find these stories much more interesting and relevant than reading about huge fundraising rounds, or the history of Uber and Facebook. You have a much greater chance of success with a smaller sustainable company instead of a crazy moonshot. But you won't get featured in TechCrunch, and you won't make it onto any of these 30 under 30 lists.

[1] https://www.indiehackers.com

[2] https://saasclub.io/saas-podcast

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