4 ms·

Limiting a software engineers career to less than 20 years is a pretty fucking idiotic thing to do.

wpietri 4y ago
Sure. Ageism, sexism, racism, etc, etc, etc, are all fucking idiotic. And yet surprisingly popular. So we have to deal with them.
- ThePadawan 4y ago
  I agree with you, but imagine being a discriminatory, but rational asshole. Of course you're not going to hire a woman if you could hire a man - they might get pregnant and be away from work for a long time. Of course you're not going hire an older employee that knows their worth over a recent graduate that isn't familiar with the salary they should earn. You can rip them off much more easily. People can be cunts but still act with some rational motivation. That's why we have protected categories, to make sure that that isn't a strategy worth pursuing.
  - w4ffl35 4y ago
    > not going hire an older employee that knows their worth over a recent graduate that isn't familiar with the salary they should earn that's the real problem, self and situational-awareness.
  - whiddershins 4y ago
    Except if the more experienced engineer is actually worth more, the rational actor will pay them more.
    - w4ffl35 4y ago
      > the rational actor i like the points in this thread. perhaps aging is just a natural bad actor filter. options narrow as we wise up.
- w4ffl35 4y ago
  > So we have to deal with them this is the one thing you said I disagree with, unless you mean dealing with it by eliminating it.
  - wpietri 4y ago
    Yes. Although in practice a lot of what we have do to is mitigating it, as eliminating the roots of it is a decades-to-centuries problem.
gedy 4y ago
A lot of software companies don't care about having good programmers, they want people to do their bidding and be as cheap as possible. Younger people are nicer to look at too.
- wpietri 4y ago
  Such an important point. At so many places, effectively producing good software is low down on the priority list. In which case, a lot of the "rational actor" analysis around hiring totally misses the point.

Sure. Ageism, sexism, racism, etc, etc, etc, are all fucking idiotic. And yet surprisingly popular. So we have to deal with them.

ThePadawan 4y ago
I agree with you, but imagine being a discriminatory, but rational asshole. Of course you're not going to hire a woman if you could hire a man - they might get pregnant and be away from work for a long time. Of course you're not going hire an older employee that knows their worth over a recent graduate that isn't familiar with the salary they should earn. You can rip them off much more easily. People can be cunts but still act with some rational motivation. That's why we have protected categories, to make sure that that isn't a strategy worth pursuing.
- w4ffl35 4y ago
  > not going hire an older employee that knows their worth over a recent graduate that isn't familiar with the salary they should earn that's the real problem, self and situational-awareness.
- whiddershins 4y ago
  Except if the more experienced engineer is actually worth more, the rational actor will pay them more.
  - w4ffl35 4y ago
    > the rational actor i like the points in this thread. perhaps aging is just a natural bad actor filter. options narrow as we wise up.
w4ffl35 4y ago
> So we have to deal with them this is the one thing you said I disagree with, unless you mean dealing with it by eliminating it.
- wpietri 4y ago
  Yes. Although in practice a lot of what we have do to is mitigating it, as eliminating the roots of it is a decades-to-centuries problem.

gedy 4y ago

A lot of software companies don't care about having good programmers, they want people to do their bidding and be as cheap as possible. Younger people are nicer to look at too.

wpietri 4y ago
Such an important point. At so many places, effectively producing good software is low down on the priority list. In which case, a lot of the "rational actor" analysis around hiring totally misses the point.