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I'm 44. I've been a web developer for 25 years, working with various bits of tech (ASP, Perl, PHP, JS, etc) across backend and frontend, and at all levels from

I'm 44. I've been a web developer for 25 years, working with various bits of tech (ASP, Perl, PHP, JS, etc) across backend and frontend, and at all levels from junior dev to freelancer to CTO to founder of a VC-backed startup. It's been a wild ride, and I have no intention of stopping. I would say this - older developers don't leave the industry, but they do get tired of learning different ways to achieve the same things, so they drift towards the 'boring' companies where they can actually use the skills they've learned. My most recent role is at a big company that moves much more slowly than the startups and small companies I've worked in, and that means I actually have time to plan things, design code, write documentation, and understand the problems I'm solving. That's fantastic and energising.

ryandrake 5y ago
> I would say this - older developers don't leave the industry, but they do get tired of learning different ways to achieve the same things This is a big part of it. I agree! A lot of what the software industry calls "learning" is actually just the Language/Framework treadmill. "Learning" how to solve the same problems but in this language or with that framework. And inevitably realizing that this thing the hip guys call new is just a re-implementation of something we already did well back in the 90's, but this time in Rust! That kind of learning is kind of neat the first one or two times, but after a while you notice the treadmill, and want to just settle down and actually solve problems.