6 ms·

My father, who is about to turn 80, is still knee deep in code every day -- having retired (many years ago) after 45 years in the industry. The guy remembers p

My father, who is about to turn 80, is still knee deep in code every day -- having retired (many years ago) after 45 years in the industry. The guy remembers paper tape, and is still going strong. And often, he's way into whatever the latest language is. He builds games, software for organizing pills and bills, and has designed and rebuilt his own editor several times. Honestly, the guy's my hero.

ryanar 7y ago
Does your dad have a website or github with his work? Would be cool to check it out.
- sramsay 7y ago
  No, honestly. He contributes little bugfix patches to projects here and there to various projects, but he doesn't want to maintain software for anyone else (fair, I think -- he did spend an entire career doing that). He makes (pretty cool) side-scrollers for this grandchildren, tools for himself. He sometimes complains that he's not sure what to build, but he figures it out. He also has a Mac and a Linux box (running Gentoo, I think). That keeps him busy!
ALittleLight 7y ago
This is encouraging for me to hear. I hope to still be hacking away on my projects when I reach that age. (and beyond ideally).
hwillis 7y ago
damn, that's amazing. I don't think my hands or eyes will keep up with me at that age. Hell, they carp is already getting my wrists. At least I'll still have metalworking!
- sramsay 7y ago
  Maybe you won't (alas)! He is also a master-level woodworker, but had to stop due to spinal stenosis. Being a geek, he has his Apple watch set up to remind him to go walk around every hour, and that tends to keep it at bay. But he really can't work in the shop any more. And honestly (just to brag on my dad a bit more) the way he said goodbye to all that struck me as really impressive. He loved woodworking, but he didn't weep and mourn or go into a depression when he couldn't do it anymore. He just shrugged and said, "Well, I guess it's on to my other hobbies!" That's how I want to be.
tlrobinson 7y ago
That’s awesome. I’m curious, what are his languages of choice?
- sramsay 7y ago
  You probably can't name one he hasn't played around with (and I'll admit -- I'm an enabler with this). He certainly has his black belt in C++, JavaScript, and Ruby, but he's crazy about Lisp and has recently gone on a tear with Nim. He's written his own editor ("I want it the way I want it!") maybe four times in different languages, just because. He's always teasing me for being a vi user ("You're stuck in the 70s!")
  - dom96 7y ago
    > has recently gone on a tear with Nim. That's awesome! I'd love to hear his thoughts :)
    - sramsay 7y ago
      He really loved it (and I think plans to write some more stuff with it). I'm coming up on 50, so all of my friends' parents are roughly the same age. The big crackup for me is that they're all worried about their parents falling for a phishing attack or having to update operating systems that haven't seen an update in ten years. When I call my dad, he wants to get deep into compiler theory. Or talk about Rust. Or moon about how the world would have been so much better if Brendan Eich had just implemented Scheme. Or he'll talk about how much he loves TeX. You know, he complains that he's not as sharp as he used to be. He's always warning me to take care of my body, because "mens sana in corpore sano!" But really, I just don't worry about him at all. He's also one of the happiest people I know, and absolutely one of the most well read (I'm an English professor; I'm surrounded by well-read people. It's kind of amazing how many books he's read in his life).

ryanar 7y ago

Does your dad have a website or github with his work? Would be cool to check it out.

sramsay 7y ago
No, honestly. He contributes little bugfix patches to projects here and there to various projects, but he doesn't want to maintain software for anyone else (fair, I think -- he did spend an entire career doing that). He makes (pretty cool) side-scrollers for this grandchildren, tools for himself. He sometimes complains that he's not sure what to build, but he figures it out. He also has a Mac and a Linux box (running Gentoo, I think). That keeps him busy!

ALittleLight 7y ago

This is encouraging for me to hear. I hope to still be hacking away on my projects when I reach that age. (and beyond ideally).

hwillis 7y ago

damn, that's amazing. I don't think my hands or eyes will keep up with me at that age. Hell, they carp is already getting my wrists. At least I'll still have metalworking!

sramsay 7y ago
Maybe you won't (alas)! He is also a master-level woodworker, but had to stop due to spinal stenosis. Being a geek, he has his Apple watch set up to remind him to go walk around every hour, and that tends to keep it at bay. But he really can't work in the shop any more. And honestly (just to brag on my dad a bit more) the way he said goodbye to all that struck me as really impressive. He loved woodworking, but he didn't weep and mourn or go into a depression when he couldn't do it anymore. He just shrugged and said, "Well, I guess it's on to my other hobbies!" That's how I want to be.

tlrobinson 7y ago

That’s awesome. I’m curious, what are his languages of choice?

sramsay 7y ago
You probably can't name one he hasn't played around with (and I'll admit -- I'm an enabler with this). He certainly has his black belt in C++, JavaScript, and Ruby, but he's crazy about Lisp and has recently gone on a tear with Nim. He's written his own editor ("I want it the way I want it!") maybe four times in different languages, just because. He's always teasing me for being a vi user ("You're stuck in the 70s!")
- dom96 7y ago
  > has recently gone on a tear with Nim. That's awesome! I'd love to hear his thoughts :)
  - sramsay 7y ago
    He really loved it (and I think plans to write some more stuff with it). I'm coming up on 50, so all of my friends' parents are roughly the same age. The big crackup for me is that they're all worried about their parents falling for a phishing attack or having to update operating systems that haven't seen an update in ten years. When I call my dad, he wants to get deep into compiler theory. Or talk about Rust. Or moon about how the world would have been so much better if Brendan Eich had just implemented Scheme. Or he'll talk about how much he loves TeX. You know, he complains that he's not as sharp as he used to be. He's always warning me to take care of my body, because "mens sana in corpore sano!" But really, I just don't worry about him at all. He's also one of the happiest people I know, and absolutely one of the most well read (I'm an English professor; I'm surrounded by well-read people. It's kind of amazing how many books he's read in his life).