8 ms·

An 84-year-old Japanese app developer

264 points by raleighm 7y ago

jakub_g 7y ago
Some quotes I found interesting regarding the usage of tech by elderly people: > I explained my app. "Since senior citizens are not good at swiping," I said, "I made it possible for them to play by tapping." > I think AI speakers are helpful to the elderly. Once the initial setup is complete, we can use them even if we become bedridden. > What we need are features that support people from the AI side. One example would be a function that informs users that evacuation instructions have been issued due to heavy rain. Or when you feel a pain in your chest, a function that dials 119 (Japan's emergency number) would be helpful.
- The_suffocated 7y ago
  > I explained my app. "Since senior citizens are not good at swiping," I said, "I made it possible for them to play by tapping." I have a similar experience. A few years ago I implemented a traditional Chinese dominoes game on Android for my grandma. (To date she still plays the game every night for two hours.) When I let her tested the game, the first thing I observed was that she was poor at dragging the dominoes to the table. So, I quickly changed dragging to tapping. (Tap a dominoe once to choose it and tap the table once to play it. To cancel a wrong choice, tap the chosen dominoe again.)
lordnacho 7y ago
This is awesome, and it will become more prevalent as the generations that grew up with computers start to get older. Your body may get weaker but you can at least stave off the same happening to your mind by doing brain stuff. And there's a childlike satisfaction to coding that I reckon everyone enjoys, a new challenge whenever you do it. I certainly hope to still be able to do it in my old age.
cerberusss 7y ago
I really wish I'll be like that at old age. I'm now in my forties, and since the age of 12, have had great fun programming. It's now my job, but I hope it doesn't get ruined. Regularly I see people here that have become jaded, and no longer derive pleasure from coding. This lady really inspires me and makes me wish my future contains loads of interesting programming problems to solve.
- novok 7y ago
  The non jaded are working and not wasting time whining on HN :D Or they don't want to waste their energy arguing with an angry internet random.
  - cerberusss 7y ago
    Very good point, thank you!
michaelangerman 7y ago
I have been programming for 45 years and started at age 15, the key to make it fun, forever, is just work on coding projects you love doing. Of course, you have to be in a situation that enables you to do that, but if you are lucky enough to be there, then I can see someone coding for another 20 years or most of your life.
- peruvian 7y ago
  My problem is I like coding but can’t come up with projects I’m interested in. Everything that comes up exists or can be solved in a much simpler way (often a spreadsheet or an Apple note) that requires no software.
  - nelsonic 7y ago
    The analogy I like to apply when answering the question “everything already exists” is restaurants. Every conceivable type of food already exists and there have never been more restaurants and yet new ones are opening all the time. Why? Because there is always scope for minor variation/improvement. In software as in food, start by making something for yourself. Show it to your friends (HN) and get their feedback. Iterate from there. Yes, often ideas can be solved with a spreadsheet or note-taking app, but the UX of inputting and visualising the data is what matters.
    - desi_ninja 7y ago
      But there is scope for major improvements in tech. Make software for fields which don’t receive a lot of attention. Alternatively, make accessibility enabled software so that everyone can use and enjoy the same resources
      - nelsonic 7y ago
        Totally agree. There's always scope for improvement especially in the field of accessibility. I was just highlighting that people should never think that "everything has already been done" because it really hasn't.
tempsy 7y ago
We really need to address the rampant ageism problem in the software industry. I don't know what it will take but I see it as big of a problem as diversity & inclusion issues that impact women and minorities.
- fortran77 7y ago
  We can't even solve it on Hacker News! Many threads complain about old people taking up resources that younger people want. I've even been "Ok, Boomered" several times here. I'm 57.
  - schoen 7y ago
    Did the HN moderators accept that?
    - 0x8BADF00D 7y ago
      As an aside, why are people so triggered by that phrase? Couldn’t you just retort “ok millennial” or something? I could see how it leads to low quality discussion, though.
    - dang 7y ago
      We don't allow that kind of thing, but we also don't see everything that gets posted here.
  - dang 7y ago
    I searched the data and found only https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21465452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21465452 which matches your description. As you can see, we replied to that one. What are the other cases?
- m0zg 7y ago
  I think the problem will "address" itself as a large population of qualified programmers ages, and the total numbers of programmers stabilize. This field has experienced explosive growth over the past couple of decades, and that growth was mostly fueled by the young people, so it's no wonder the industry is geared towards them. Disclosure: I'm in my mid-40s, self employed, but no shortage of clients.
olingern 7y ago
> Wakamiya also teaches "Excel art," which uses the spreadsheet software to create designs. I've worked at a couple of Japanese companies in Tokyo and am truly amazed at what they can do with Excel. Most recently, I had a co-worker create UI mockups in excel. It wasn't Sketch / Figma level of design -- but it was pretty effective at communicating what he needed. On the other hand, some things are just down right atrocious like internal company pages with everyone's name and picture.
cryptozeus 7y ago
(Have not read the article) IMO age is not a factor on internet

264 points by raleighm 7y ago

Some quotes I found interesting regarding the usage of tech by elderly people: > I explained my app. "Since senior citizens are not good at swiping," I said, "I made it possible for them to play by tapping." > I think AI speakers are helpful to the elderly. Once the initial setup is complete, we can use them even if we become bedridden. > What we need are features that support people from the AI side. One example would be a function that informs users that evacuation instructions have been issued due to heavy rain. Or when you feel a pain in your chest, a function that dials 119 (Japan's emergency number) would be helpful.

The_suffocated 7y ago
> I explained my app. "Since senior citizens are not good at swiping," I said, "I made it possible for them to play by tapping." I have a similar experience. A few years ago I implemented a traditional Chinese dominoes game on Android for my grandma. (To date she still plays the game every night for two hours.) When I let her tested the game, the first thing I observed was that she was poor at dragging the dominoes to the table. So, I quickly changed dragging to tapping. (Tap a dominoe once to choose it and tap the table once to play it. To cancel a wrong choice, tap the chosen dominoe again.)

lordnacho 7y ago

This is awesome, and it will become more prevalent as the generations that grew up with computers start to get older. Your body may get weaker but you can at least stave off the same happening to your mind by doing brain stuff. And there's a childlike satisfaction to coding that I reckon everyone enjoys, a new challenge whenever you do it. I certainly hope to still be able to do it in my old age.

cerberusss 7y ago

I really wish I'll be like that at old age. I'm now in my forties, and since the age of 12, have had great fun programming. It's now my job, but I hope it doesn't get ruined. Regularly I see people here that have become jaded, and no longer derive pleasure from coding. This lady really inspires me and makes me wish my future contains loads of interesting programming problems to solve.

novok 7y ago
The non jaded are working and not wasting time whining on HN :D Or they don't want to waste their energy arguing with an angry internet random.
- cerberusss 7y ago
  Very good point, thank you!

michaelangerman 7y ago

I have been programming for 45 years and started at age 15, the key to make it fun, forever, is just work on coding projects you love doing. Of course, you have to be in a situation that enables you to do that, but if you are lucky enough to be there, then I can see someone coding for another 20 years or most of your life.

peruvian 7y ago
My problem is I like coding but can’t come up with projects I’m interested in. Everything that comes up exists or can be solved in a much simpler way (often a spreadsheet or an Apple note) that requires no software.
- nelsonic 7y ago
  The analogy I like to apply when answering the question “everything already exists” is restaurants. Every conceivable type of food already exists and there have never been more restaurants and yet new ones are opening all the time. Why? Because there is always scope for minor variation/improvement. In software as in food, start by making something for yourself. Show it to your friends (HN) and get their feedback. Iterate from there. Yes, often ideas can be solved with a spreadsheet or note-taking app, but the UX of inputting and visualising the data is what matters.
  - desi_ninja 7y ago
    But there is scope for major improvements in tech. Make software for fields which don’t receive a lot of attention. Alternatively, make accessibility enabled software so that everyone can use and enjoy the same resources
    - nelsonic 7y ago
      Totally agree. There's always scope for improvement especially in the field of accessibility. I was just highlighting that people should never think that "everything has already been done" because it really hasn't.

tempsy 7y ago

We really need to address the rampant ageism problem in the software industry. I don't know what it will take but I see it as big of a problem as diversity & inclusion issues that impact women and minorities.

fortran77 7y ago
We can't even solve it on Hacker News! Many threads complain about old people taking up resources that younger people want. I've even been "Ok, Boomered" several times here. I'm 57.
- schoen 7y ago
  Did the HN moderators accept that?
  - 0x8BADF00D 7y ago
    As an aside, why are people so triggered by that phrase? Couldn’t you just retort “ok millennial” or something? I could see how it leads to low quality discussion, though.
  - dang 7y ago
    We don't allow that kind of thing, but we also don't see everything that gets posted here.
- dang 7y ago
  I searched the data and found only https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21465452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21465452 which matches your description. As you can see, we replied to that one. What are the other cases?
m0zg 7y ago
I think the problem will "address" itself as a large population of qualified programmers ages, and the total numbers of programmers stabilize. This field has experienced explosive growth over the past couple of decades, and that growth was mostly fueled by the young people, so it's no wonder the industry is geared towards them. Disclosure: I'm in my mid-40s, self employed, but no shortage of clients.

olingern 7y ago

> Wakamiya also teaches "Excel art," which uses the spreadsheet software to create designs. I've worked at a couple of Japanese companies in Tokyo and am truly amazed at what they can do with Excel. Most recently, I had a co-worker create UI mockups in excel. It wasn't Sketch / Figma level of design -- but it was pretty effective at communicating what he needed. On the other hand, some things are just down right atrocious like internal company pages with everyone's name and picture.

cryptozeus 7y ago

(Have not read the article) IMO age is not a factor on internet