> If you want to be a programmer at 55 still you can't ever lose the hunger to know more, know better and know simpler. Once you lose that edge the technology s

> If you want to be a programmer at 55 still you can't ever lose the hunger to know more, know better and know simpler. Once you lose that edge the technology steamroller keeps on coming closer and closer until you wind up flat doing something else for a living. Steamroller is an interesting metaphor. Treadmill is a little more common, thinking about the difference is potentially instructive. Having observed some points between 20something and 55 (if still a good ways off from the latter end), one of the things I've noticed is that I'm no less hungry to know more. I'm possible more hungry -- as my knowledge has grown, I've realized how much more there is that I don't know. But I'm also far more picky and concerned about ROI. I have less patience for learning to keep up with churn; if it's at all possible, I prefer to reserve new learning for new capabilities rather than learning a new way of doing the same thing. Unless it clearly is better and simpler (but if that were so clear, why the proliferation of solutions?)...