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"StackOverflow’s survey on age shows that there are just about 13% of developers after 40. Where are the others?" Not wasting time filling out online surveys?

"StackOverflow’s survey on age shows that there are just about 13% of developers after 40. Where are the others?" Not wasting time filling out online surveys? I'm not even 40 yet and I realised online surveys were a waste of time years ago. :-) A stackoverflow survey doesn't measure the answers of stackoverflow users. It measures the answers from the specific demographic of stackoverflow users who are inclined to answer surveys. Those demographics overlap but are not equal.

acchow 9y ago
This is why the plural of anecdote is not data. It doesn't even matter if they get thousands or millions of survey responses - the methodology to collect the surveys doesn't avoid biases (random collection), nor is there a method to remove the bias.
elorant 9y ago
I'm 44, still writing code and I've never participated in a SO survey.
ben174 9y ago
So much this. A problem with nearly all these statistics is you're gathering answers from the people who are the type of people who answer surveys. This often tends to be a less-private and younger crowd.
Joeri 9y ago
There is still some truth to it. I'm 37 and have had to repeatedly and forcefully turn down managerial roles. The idea of horizontal growth is a hard sell to people who've chosen the vertical path. It would be very easy to drift into a management role, and in fact it happened to me once and I had to take deliberate action to get off the management track. I don't want to manage people. I want to build, and learn about building. And I hope to be lucky enough to do that until retirement age.
- criddell 9y ago
  I'm 10 years older than you but feel the same way. I would be interested in hearing from people that did make the jump to management. Why did you do it? How did it turn out? Any regrets about making the jump or for not making the jump sooner?
  - alistairSH 9y ago
    :raises hand: I'm now 40 years old and recently took a position as Software Development Manager. I manage a small team (currently 2 developers, 1 test engineer, and a product owner, and should be adding 2-4 more devs over the summer). The PO and I still wear our developer hats for a good portion of the day. The "why?" is simple - I like the challenge. Yes, I can challenge myself with 100% technical tasks, but moving into management was something completely new. The move into management has been gradual. I followed a standard developer path for years - dev, senior dev, principal dev, architect. Did the architect thing for a few years, then decided I wanted to work on my soft skills, so took over the scrum master role. I have a great boss/mentor, the position worked out well, and I recently took over a full development manager role (basically, same as I was doing, with the addition of personnel management). How did it work out? Pretty well, I suppose. So far, I'm enjoying the new responsibilities. Regrets? No, not really. But, I'm also not far enough removed from 100% developer that I couldn't pick up that hat again should the need arise.
  - 31reasons 9y ago
    Reason is simple, very few people love programming and even fewer love to keep learning to stay up-to-date with new technologies. Its simply hard if you are not much interested in doing programming and were in the profession to get a nice job because everyone else was jumping on the bandwagon while you were in college. It is also possible to lose love for programming after initial interest fades away. It has happened to me multiple times. The only reason I stayed as programmer is because I hate management even more.
    - epalmer 9y ago
      I'm 63 and love programming. But my job is mostly other things. I coach a scrum team of 5 devs, PO and a proxy PO. I manage 2 developers, I do some security work and a whole lot more. I manage to write code most weeks. Python, php and Java. For the record I love python but my skills are not where I want them. I'm better, much better at Java, but I really don't like coding in Java much anymore and well I do php when I have to. I do love learning and will continue to learn as I get older.
josephorjoe 9y ago
I'm 46, been coding for 3 (three) years, use StackOverflow several times a week, never answered one of their surveys.
startupdiscuss 9y ago
The % is misleading because more people may have joined the field as time went on, or tech became more popular.
fencepost 9y ago
I'm 48 and working on shifting back into coding after too much time doing more generalized IT consulting/support/admin/etc. for medical practices, and I'm not nearly as likely to spend time on Stack Overflow as I was 6-7 years ago. There's still useful stuff on there and some gems, but it feels like there's a lot more cruft to wade through as well and I'm not feeling the same desire to surf the site or look for questions to answer because that's just not as personally rewarding as it once was.
fulafel 9y ago
Programmers over 40 would have started programming before 1995. Programmer cohorts who started in 1985-1995 were likely much smaller than the web boom cohorts.

acchow 9y ago

This is why the plural of anecdote is not data. It doesn't even matter if they get thousands or millions of survey responses - the methodology to collect the surveys doesn't avoid biases (random collection), nor is there a method to remove the bias.

elorant 9y ago

I'm 44, still writing code and I've never participated in a SO survey.

ben174 9y ago

So much this. A problem with nearly all these statistics is you're gathering answers from the people who are the type of people who answer surveys. This often tends to be a less-private and younger crowd.

Joeri 9y ago

There is still some truth to it. I'm 37 and have had to repeatedly and forcefully turn down managerial roles. The idea of horizontal growth is a hard sell to people who've chosen the vertical path. It would be very easy to drift into a management role, and in fact it happened to me once and I had to take deliberate action to get off the management track. I don't want to manage people. I want to build, and learn about building. And I hope to be lucky enough to do that until retirement age.

criddell 9y ago
I'm 10 years older than you but feel the same way. I would be interested in hearing from people that did make the jump to management. Why did you do it? How did it turn out? Any regrets about making the jump or for not making the jump sooner?
- alistairSH 9y ago
  :raises hand: I'm now 40 years old and recently took a position as Software Development Manager. I manage a small team (currently 2 developers, 1 test engineer, and a product owner, and should be adding 2-4 more devs over the summer). The PO and I still wear our developer hats for a good portion of the day. The "why?" is simple - I like the challenge. Yes, I can challenge myself with 100% technical tasks, but moving into management was something completely new. The move into management has been gradual. I followed a standard developer path for years - dev, senior dev, principal dev, architect. Did the architect thing for a few years, then decided I wanted to work on my soft skills, so took over the scrum master role. I have a great boss/mentor, the position worked out well, and I recently took over a full development manager role (basically, same as I was doing, with the addition of personnel management). How did it work out? Pretty well, I suppose. So far, I'm enjoying the new responsibilities. Regrets? No, not really. But, I'm also not far enough removed from 100% developer that I couldn't pick up that hat again should the need arise.
- 31reasons 9y ago
  Reason is simple, very few people love programming and even fewer love to keep learning to stay up-to-date with new technologies. Its simply hard if you are not much interested in doing programming and were in the profession to get a nice job because everyone else was jumping on the bandwagon while you were in college. It is also possible to lose love for programming after initial interest fades away. It has happened to me multiple times. The only reason I stayed as programmer is because I hate management even more.
  - epalmer 9y ago
    I'm 63 and love programming. But my job is mostly other things. I coach a scrum team of 5 devs, PO and a proxy PO. I manage 2 developers, I do some security work and a whole lot more. I manage to write code most weeks. Python, php and Java. For the record I love python but my skills are not where I want them. I'm better, much better at Java, but I really don't like coding in Java much anymore and well I do php when I have to. I do love learning and will continue to learn as I get older.

josephorjoe 9y ago

I'm 46, been coding for 3 (three) years, use StackOverflow several times a week, never answered one of their surveys.

startupdiscuss 9y ago

The % is misleading because more people may have joined the field as time went on, or tech became more popular.

fencepost 9y ago

I'm 48 and working on shifting back into coding after too much time doing more generalized IT consulting/support/admin/etc. for medical practices, and I'm not nearly as likely to spend time on Stack Overflow as I was 6-7 years ago. There's still useful stuff on there and some gems, but it feels like there's a lot more cruft to wade through as well and I'm not feeling the same desire to surf the site or look for questions to answer because that's just not as personally rewarding as it once was.

fulafel 9y ago

Programmers over 40 would have started programming before 1995. Programmer cohorts who started in 1985-1995 were likely much smaller than the web boom cohorts.