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Take this passion and dedication to a different industry. Software. We are always looking for "fresh" talent, but sometimes old talent with milage is just as go

Take this passion and dedication to a different industry. Software. We are always looking for "fresh" talent, but sometimes old talent with milage is just as good, if not better. He's old, but still doing what he loves. Some of us engineering folk are old too, and still doing what we love. Agism exists. Let's actively fight it by remembering The Hawk. That said, he was an inspiration to me in the 90s, still is today. I don't have the knees to skateboard anymore but I do ride a OneWheel.

JamesSwift 5y ago
Its a good point, but also this is basically the John Carmack of skateboarding. Its a different tier of athlete/developer.
- lloeki 5y ago
  Hmm, not too sure about that comparison, Tony Hawk is really good, but to me a Carmack of skateboarding would be some one more like Rodney Mullen or Daewon Song. See e.g how Mullen explains his fundamental approach to skateboarding in "Pop a ollie and innovate". https://youtu.be/3GVO-MfIl1Q https://youtu.be/3GVO-MfIl1Q
brailsafe 5y ago
I kind of disagree with this. Programming yes, but software development not really. At least, I haven't found that to very true, and "passion" is kind of a farce in this world. Skateboarding is a totally freeform and largely individually driven sense of expression and progression. That's exactly what programming can be, but software seems to me to inherit few if any of those qualities. Likewise, as a software developer and skateboarder, especially at one point having foolishly accepted a corporate job with lifers, I felt like more of an outcast than at any other point including high school.
- gabereiser 5y ago
  Yeah but you taking a corporate software gig with “lifers” is like if Tony Hawk was only allowed to skate with his old nash board. It’s going to get boring real quick. He progressed past his birdhouse days to invent the 900. Do the same in your company and champion experimentation and innovation. If you feel like an outcast, ask yourself why. Change starts with you.
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    Tony Hawk founded Birdhouse and certainly did not progress past it. I don't even know if it's precise to say he invented the 900, but he was the first to do it in competition on a skateboard. It had been done on a bike 10 years earlier on a similar ramp. I think the latter half of your comment is just spurious, though it is something I believed before trying it. Your success in "championing experimentation" is entirely dependent upon the corporate structure, and that is mainly set up to lower risk. Software engineering as a discipline is inherently one of efficiency and risk reduction through hierarchy and abstraction. You get less of this at companies that default to letting people have ideal levels of autonomy, but those are rare. > If you feel like an outcast, ask yourself why. Change starts with you. I did, and it was because everyone else did exactly as they were told and how they had always done it. I was a contractor that had a Macbook and preferred to work in a quiet space on good equipment with jeans and a non-button up shirt. I looked and worked different, and they did not like that. After they fired me, things changed slightly from what I heard, so you could say changes started with me, but they certainly didn't include me. Software development is nothing like skateboarding. It's not accepting of individual differentiation, it's slow and afraid of risk, and sometimes companies even have a dress code. In skateboarding, you learn to not give a shit what other people think, but companies depend on everyone giving a lot of a shit about what everyone thinks.

JamesSwift 5y ago

Its a good point, but also this is basically the John Carmack of skateboarding. Its a different tier of athlete/developer.

lloeki 5y ago
Hmm, not too sure about that comparison, Tony Hawk is really good, but to me a Carmack of skateboarding would be some one more like Rodney Mullen or Daewon Song. See e.g how Mullen explains his fundamental approach to skateboarding in "Pop a ollie and innovate". https://youtu.be/3GVO-MfIl1Q https://youtu.be/3GVO-MfIl1Q

brailsafe 5y ago

I kind of disagree with this. Programming yes, but software development not really. At least, I haven't found that to very true, and "passion" is kind of a farce in this world. Skateboarding is a totally freeform and largely individually driven sense of expression and progression. That's exactly what programming can be, but software seems to me to inherit few if any of those qualities. Likewise, as a software developer and skateboarder, especially at one point having foolishly accepted a corporate job with lifers, I felt like more of an outcast than at any other point including high school.

gabereiser 5y ago
Yeah but you taking a corporate software gig with “lifers” is like if Tony Hawk was only allowed to skate with his old nash board. It’s going to get boring real quick. He progressed past his birdhouse days to invent the 900. Do the same in your company and champion experimentation and innovation. If you feel like an outcast, ask yourself why. Change starts with you.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  Tony Hawk founded Birdhouse and certainly did not progress past it. I don't even know if it's precise to say he invented the 900, but he was the first to do it in competition on a skateboard. It had been done on a bike 10 years earlier on a similar ramp. I think the latter half of your comment is just spurious, though it is something I believed before trying it. Your success in "championing experimentation" is entirely dependent upon the corporate structure, and that is mainly set up to lower risk. Software engineering as a discipline is inherently one of efficiency and risk reduction through hierarchy and abstraction. You get less of this at companies that default to letting people have ideal levels of autonomy, but those are rare. > If you feel like an outcast, ask yourself why. Change starts with you. I did, and it was because everyone else did exactly as they were told and how they had always done it. I was a contractor that had a Macbook and preferred to work in a quiet space on good equipment with jeans and a non-button up shirt. I looked and worked different, and they did not like that. After they fired me, things changed slightly from what I heard, so you could say changes started with me, but they certainly didn't include me. Software development is nothing like skateboarding. It's not accepting of individual differentiation, it's slow and afraid of risk, and sometimes companies even have a dress code. In skateboarding, you learn to not give a shit what other people think, but companies depend on everyone giving a lot of a shit about what everyone thinks.