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I think hiring in the US is too broken to acknowledge that it’s an unsustainable subscription to ageism in the workplace. For one, as technology begins to repla

I think hiring in the US is too broken to acknowledge that it’s an unsustainable subscription to ageism in the workplace. For one, as technology begins to replace “labor,” where labor is defined as human inputs to achieve a product, companies are also caught in a situation that allows them to have their cake and eat it to. They want to hire people with the skill sets already and they want to hire exceptional “talent.” However, a reasonable person can see immediately how unsustainable this is- you’re dedicating your workforce to always know the newest technology and without dedicated training, this is only achieved by hiring fresh kids out of college. Call me cynical, but I always resented the modern corporate mentality of seeking the best without taking the initiative to invest in training and development.

sokoloff 6y ago
I’ve not generally found that fresh college grads know the newest technology. If anything, many of them were taught impractical languages and all were taught impractical constraints imposed by the problem set plus one or two short project format of college courses. If I picked a random 35, 40, or 50 year old practicing programmer, I’d bet that they know wildly more about practical, day-to-day programming than a 21 year-old whiz from a top 10 comp sci program.
runawaybottle 6y ago
You are blaming things on a class (or perceived class, young and old), when in reality the culprit is scale. At scale, there will always be lots of good people that know exactly what you need them to know. The only part about all of this that will suck is if we don’t have enough companies to keep this a liquid as fuck market. As for the original topic, again, at scale talent is not a large enough multiple to be noticeable. We are entering, or already entered industrial scale computing. We will absolutely be cogs in the machine and will look back in wonder how this small community once lauded the notion of a 10x developer. Where does this hurt? The same place it hurts in love. That for a brief moment to think you were special to someone somewhere is just, ugh, rough.
beckingz 6y ago
Companies like buying 'talent' on the spot market. This gets expensive for some specialist tech areas.

sokoloff 6y ago

I’ve not generally found that fresh college grads know the newest technology. If anything, many of them were taught impractical languages and all were taught impractical constraints imposed by the problem set plus one or two short project format of college courses. If I picked a random 35, 40, or 50 year old practicing programmer, I’d bet that they know wildly more about practical, day-to-day programming than a 21 year-old whiz from a top 10 comp sci program.

runawaybottle 6y ago

You are blaming things on a class (or perceived class, young and old), when in reality the culprit is scale. At scale, there will always be lots of good people that know exactly what you need them to know. The only part about all of this that will suck is if we don’t have enough companies to keep this a liquid as fuck market. As for the original topic, again, at scale talent is not a large enough multiple to be noticeable. We are entering, or already entered industrial scale computing. We will absolutely be cogs in the machine and will look back in wonder how this small community once lauded the notion of a 10x developer. Where does this hurt? The same place it hurts in love. That for a brief moment to think you were special to someone somewhere is just, ugh, rough.

beckingz 6y ago

Companies like buying 'talent' on the spot market. This gets expensive for some specialist tech areas.