4 ms·

According to Wikipedia, Grace Hopper started her computing career in 1944 when she worked on the Harvard Mark 1, which would have put her at ~38 when she began.

According to Wikipedia, Grace Hopper started her computing career in 1944 when she worked on the Harvard Mark 1, which would have put her at ~38 when she began. Assuming she worked until her death, that puts her career in computing at a (incredibly impressive) 47 years.

rsynnott 6y ago
She was a mathematician before that, though; probably about as close as you could get at the time :) But yeah, always vaguely thought she was younger starting.
- kibwen 6y ago
  Younger nothing, it's wild that I never stopped to consider that there was a (recent!) period where our whole professional field had to be invented out of thin air, scooping up willing academics as it went. Considering that ENIAC (along with the Von Neumann architecture) wasn't even a thing until 1945, to begin her career in 1944 is hardly late! :) (Aside, I wonder if recruiters in 1944 were already asking for ten years of ENIAC experience?)
  - jodrellblank 6y ago
    > our whole professional field had to be invented out of thin air "We shall need a great number of mathematicians of ability; there will probably be a good deal of work of this kind to be done" - Alan Turing, 1945. You might find this talk by Bob Martin interesting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecIWPzGEbFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecIWPzGEbFc - it's a history of programming that isn't the usual style, but instead about this growth into existance, increasing numbers of programmers, where they came from, and the effects that's had on the industry and on programming languages.
wilsynet 6y ago
How much of that time was she a working programmer? As an example, Larry Page may have been a programmer in the very early days of Google, but it's been more than 15 years since Larry has seriously written code for a living. As opposed to Jeff Dean who is still hacking away at his keyboard.

rsynnott 6y ago

She was a mathematician before that, though; probably about as close as you could get at the time :) But yeah, always vaguely thought she was younger starting.

kibwen 6y ago
Younger nothing, it's wild that I never stopped to consider that there was a (recent!) period where our whole professional field had to be invented out of thin air, scooping up willing academics as it went. Considering that ENIAC (along with the Von Neumann architecture) wasn't even a thing until 1945, to begin her career in 1944 is hardly late! :) (Aside, I wonder if recruiters in 1944 were already asking for ten years of ENIAC experience?)
- jodrellblank 6y ago
  > our whole professional field had to be invented out of thin air "We shall need a great number of mathematicians of ability; there will probably be a good deal of work of this kind to be done" - Alan Turing, 1945. You might find this talk by Bob Martin interesting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecIWPzGEbFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecIWPzGEbFc - it's a history of programming that isn't the usual style, but instead about this growth into existance, increasing numbers of programmers, where they came from, and the effects that's had on the industry and on programming languages.

wilsynet 6y ago

How much of that time was she a working programmer? As an example, Larry Page may have been a programmer in the very early days of Google, but it's been more than 15 years since Larry has seriously written code for a living. As opposed to Jeff Dean who is still hacking away at his keyboard.