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> How many 55 year old solo independent devs do you see out there in the wild? I think this might be too young of a profession for that point to add up. I've

• ordinaryperson 8y ago
  I sincerely hope you can continue as you've been doing, but as you'll see from many testimonials here at HN ageism in tech is a real thing, people's reactions to you will start to change as soon as you "look" old. Most of the ageism applies to FT work at Big Tech Co but IMO it sadly applies to solo, independent devs as well since 50% of it is how you market yourself, and "old" will equate to "out of touch" in too many people's eyes.
  • spraak 8y ago
    Have you ever done solo though? From reading your responses here I get the feeling no. Not that your views would be invalid if you haven't, but it does give a different weight to them vs someone who has been doing it a long time, especially who is now e.g. over 50
    • ordinaryperson 8y ago
      I have but not in many years. Maybe things have changed since then -- I don't know. But as I've said many times in this thread my point is not to say freelancing is terrible or not viable, just that articles like these seem to underrate some of the tradeoffs, which are significant. Glad it works out for the OP and you, I guess. But when your wife is pregnant or your kids need to go to the ER life can get very expensive as a freelancer. Too easy to judge the career path as a single 20-something, IMHO.
  • dboreham 8y ago
    I think ageism might be less prevalent for freelancers/consultants. Same with being remote, ime.