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This has to be about the jillionth time, here in HN comments to ageism-related stories, that I've seen it either asserted, implied, or tangentially-suggested th

This has to be about the jillionth time, here in HN comments to ageism-related stories, that I've seen it either asserted, implied, or tangentially-suggested that older developers have most likely spent their prior years working mostly in COBOL or with similar outdated technologies. Their experience will almost certainly be at megacorps ("culture" mismatch!) and they've been avoiding new technologies and approaches because they're either pleased with COBOL or content to sit fat and happy and collect a paycheck like drones. They can safely be assumed to be stagnating because an older person is after all unlikely to care about their craft after some point in their careers. The assertion/implication/suggestion is absurd and only perpetuates the stereotype that competence and relevance and value are inversely correlated with age. I'm not exactly young, have very little experience working at megacorps, and have a lot of experience working at startups and at very small companies. I do consulting (no, not COBOL, not at megacorps), am constantly learning, and do a lot of coding for fun, both on side-projects and in the course of volunteer hacking. I don't have any reason to believe, none, that I'm not representative of most technical workers my age. No reason, that is, other than reading suggestions to the contrary here on HN. Edit: grammar, content

mikestew 11y ago
Yeesh, the old folk are a touchy bunch, eh? I don't just pull this stuff out of my ass, you know. And, no, I didn't assert, imply, or suggest anything. But people that have been using the same development environment for over a decade are a thing. I can point you to mailing lists full of such developers, most of whom hope their preferred technology stack can keep them going to retirement. And those people can go on and on about their experience, but no one will care. If that doesn't apply to you, or the developers you know, umm...have a cookie? The assertion/implication/suggestion is absurd The only thing absurd in this thread is the assumption I'm lumping all the oldsters in one bucket, when what I was really implying was, "20 years of maintaining the same COBOL app is really one year of experience done 20 times." Oh, BTW, the odds overwhelmingly favor that I'm older than you are. Not that it should matter.
- kafkaesq 11y ago
  An innuendo is an insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or a derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion. In the latter sense the intention is often to insult or accuse someone in such a way that one's words, taken literally, are innocent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innuendo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innuendo

mikestew 11y ago

Yeesh, the old folk are a touchy bunch, eh? I don't just pull this stuff out of my ass, you know. And, no, I didn't assert, imply, or suggest anything. But people that have been using the same development environment for over a decade are a thing. I can point you to mailing lists full of such developers, most of whom hope their preferred technology stack can keep them going to retirement. And those people can go on and on about their experience, but no one will care. If that doesn't apply to you, or the developers you know, umm...have a cookie? The assertion/implication/suggestion is absurd The only thing absurd in this thread is the assumption I'm lumping all the oldsters in one bucket, when what I was really implying was, "20 years of maintaining the same COBOL app is really one year of experience done 20 times." Oh, BTW, the odds overwhelmingly favor that I'm older than you are. Not that it should matter.

kafkaesq 11y ago
An innuendo is an insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or a derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion. In the latter sense the intention is often to insult or accuse someone in such a way that one's words, taken literally, are innocent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innuendo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innuendo