5 ms·

>> I want to work hard, and see meaningful progression: in salary, in impact, in respect Here's the deal, you're 40, you write code for money, and you're askin

>> I want to work hard, and see meaningful progression: in salary, in impact, in respect Here's the deal, you're 40, you write code for money, and you're asking what's next. What's next is that your brain is going to be slowly deteriorating, so yeah there's going to be some choices. Like do a job that doesn't involve writing money for code, do a job that involves being a people person. One of those. I couldn't do that. I don't "get" people, maybe you do. Good luck with that. Another choice would be to go back in time and invest money when you're in your early 20's and none of this is an issue. Time machines are great. I'm a time machine. I came back here to tell you kids to invest their money in index funds so that half a century from now, everything is going to be OK. It's going to be beautiful. People hate time machines.

mathgladiator 5y ago
> What's next is that your brain is going to be slowly deteriorating, so yeah there's going to be some choices. You wound me. I'm about to turn 40, and I'm finding my brain is sharp but my body is shit. I have to deal with gout and daily pain. Fuck me. Can I have your time machine, so I can exercise more and eat less?
deterministic 5y ago
Speak for yourself buddy. I am 50+ and sharper than ever. Having a lot of deep experience makes it easy for experienced developers to do in a day what it takes younger unexperienced developers months to do. It’s especially fun when young self-important arrogant developers ignore advise from experienced people and end up in a cluster f** hell hole of their own choosing. While being too stubborn to admit defeat and ask for help. The “I told you so” feeling is most enjoyable :)
- rufus_foreman 5y ago
  >> Speak for yourself buddy OK I will speak for myself buddy. My mind is going. I can feel it. I'm afraid.
  - Baeocystin 5y ago
    I'm in my late 40s. There was a time not too long ago where I felt the same as you. My mother died from early-onset Alzheimer's, so that spectre was not helping my anxiety about it. Long story short, it turned out to be sleep apnea and some electrolyte issues. I now feel as sharp as ever. If you haven't seen a doctor about it, don't be afraid to. There's nothing wrong with getting it looked in to.
  - klibertp 5y ago
    Same. It's frightening. It's like Rainbow's End, just without everything after the first chapter. I can cope. I have years of experience to help me. I can cheat, recycle ideas and insights I had in the past (and was paying attention enough to write them down). I know where to look when I need something, so I'm still getting that thing working faster than many others, but this collapses when I need to do something completely new. Fortunately, there's actually very little "new" being done in software industry. But still. My memory is full of holes. My short-term memory doesn't work nearly at all, unless I'm extremely focused. But staying focused became draining. Not tiring, like you would be after a good workout. Draining. The difference is very simple: 20 years ago after many hours of focused work I was looking forward to the same thing tomorrow. Now, on the next day I'm doing what I can to participate in lots of meetings. No, I'm not going to be saying anything, I'm just there. I don't even listen, I just... try to rest. I have to. I need a break before getting back into the zone. There are two things which make me incredibly insecure, which I realized well into my thirties: a) I never was particularly smart or talented, just faked it with lots of enthusiasm and ungodly amount of hours worked. And b) I won't be able to fake it much longer. Like the OP, I'm not sure what's next. Contrary to him, though, I'm really not sure if I want to hear the answer.
  - mbrodersen 5y ago
    That sounds really scary.
mikewarot 5y ago
>What's next is that your brain is going to be slowly deteriorating No, it isn't. Your eyesight is going to drop, you'll need reading glasses. When you hit 50 or so, your vitreous humor will detach from your retina (if you're nearsighted like me), so you'll deal with floaters forever. So, bigger screens, with less text in a given area than you now enjoy. Your physical health will slowly go, but that shouldn't stop you from programming for a very long time. Your ability to switch tasks and handle interruptions, will drop... flow takes time to achieve. Email is asynchronous for a damned good reason, answer it once you're done programming. Mostly, you'll get grumpy when poked, but the computing resources should keep getting better for another decade or so before leveling off, so there's that.
- aliswe 5y ago
  my humor detached long ago.

mathgladiator 5y ago

> What's next is that your brain is going to be slowly deteriorating, so yeah there's going to be some choices. You wound me. I'm about to turn 40, and I'm finding my brain is sharp but my body is shit. I have to deal with gout and daily pain. Fuck me. Can I have your time machine, so I can exercise more and eat less?

deterministic 5y ago

Speak for yourself buddy. I am 50+ and sharper than ever. Having a lot of deep experience makes it easy for experienced developers to do in a day what it takes younger unexperienced developers months to do. It’s especially fun when young self-important arrogant developers ignore advise from experienced people and end up in a cluster f** hell hole of their own choosing. While being too stubborn to admit defeat and ask for help. The “I told you so” feeling is most enjoyable :)

rufus_foreman 5y ago
>> Speak for yourself buddy OK I will speak for myself buddy. My mind is going. I can feel it. I'm afraid.
- Baeocystin 5y ago
  I'm in my late 40s. There was a time not too long ago where I felt the same as you. My mother died from early-onset Alzheimer's, so that spectre was not helping my anxiety about it. Long story short, it turned out to be sleep apnea and some electrolyte issues. I now feel as sharp as ever. If you haven't seen a doctor about it, don't be afraid to. There's nothing wrong with getting it looked in to.
- klibertp 5y ago
  Same. It's frightening. It's like Rainbow's End, just without everything after the first chapter. I can cope. I have years of experience to help me. I can cheat, recycle ideas and insights I had in the past (and was paying attention enough to write them down). I know where to look when I need something, so I'm still getting that thing working faster than many others, but this collapses when I need to do something completely new. Fortunately, there's actually very little "new" being done in software industry. But still. My memory is full of holes. My short-term memory doesn't work nearly at all, unless I'm extremely focused. But staying focused became draining. Not tiring, like you would be after a good workout. Draining. The difference is very simple: 20 years ago after many hours of focused work I was looking forward to the same thing tomorrow. Now, on the next day I'm doing what I can to participate in lots of meetings. No, I'm not going to be saying anything, I'm just there. I don't even listen, I just... try to rest. I have to. I need a break before getting back into the zone. There are two things which make me incredibly insecure, which I realized well into my thirties: a) I never was particularly smart or talented, just faked it with lots of enthusiasm and ungodly amount of hours worked. And b) I won't be able to fake it much longer. Like the OP, I'm not sure what's next. Contrary to him, though, I'm really not sure if I want to hear the answer.
- mbrodersen 5y ago
  That sounds really scary.

mikewarot 5y ago

>What's next is that your brain is going to be slowly deteriorating No, it isn't. Your eyesight is going to drop, you'll need reading glasses. When you hit 50 or so, your vitreous humor will detach from your retina (if you're nearsighted like me), so you'll deal with floaters forever. So, bigger screens, with less text in a given area than you now enjoy. Your physical health will slowly go, but that shouldn't stop you from programming for a very long time. Your ability to switch tasks and handle interruptions, will drop... flow takes time to achieve. Email is asynchronous for a damned good reason, answer it once you're done programming. Mostly, you'll get grumpy when poked, but the computing resources should keep getting better for another decade or so before leveling off, so there's that.

aliswe 5y ago
my humor detached long ago.