4 ms·

I know this is just one person who was in a different time and under different circumstances, but I've found it inspirational to put age into perspective. Grac

I know this is just one person who was in a different time and under different circumstances, but I've found it inspirational to put age into perspective. Grace Hopper first entered computing at age 38, completed the first compiler at age 46, influenced the design of COBOL at age 53, wrote COBOL for the Navy through her 70s, retired from the Navy aged 80 and only then became a consultant for DEC. So for me, at least, I reckon I can keep going in my 40s.. :-)

garyrob 4y ago
Thanks for mentioning in this, which I hadn't seen before. I collect stories of successful aging because I am now 66 and hope to keep creating software, and ideas that can be implemented in it, for some time to come!
- michaelcao 4y ago
  I admire you. I hope that I could be healthy to code at 66. Wish you all the best
  - garyrob 4y ago
    Just eat well and exercise! Exercise is hugely important for maintaining cognitive health. As is eating well. Beyond those things you don't have to do much else!
michaelcao 4y ago
he's a genious. I live in Viet Nam and the unemployment benefit is not good so I'm cautious to switch career. That's why i founded a company and be a founder and CEO as a part time job.
mattjaynes 4y ago
And to continue the Grace Hopper example... Remember that she transitioned to computing from being a Mathematics professor at Yale, so she was able to leverage her previous training into the new career. Try and do the same if you can. Leverage what skills you've already gained to switch into a career where they are a big advantage. Then you are starting nearer to those already in the field, not the beginning.
- ghaff 4y ago
  >Leverage what skills you've already gained to switch into a career where they are a big advantage. Absolutely. In many cases, there are often a wide range of related/adjacent jobs that are significantly different in various ways but can nonetheless be a fairly natural transition. (Though key word can. I've seen examples that worked and examples that didn't.) On the other hand, I'll go back to school and get a Masters degree in this very tangentially related STEM field is probably going to be a lot harder.
  - xyzwave 4y ago
    Harder, how so? And even if harder, wouldn’t it still be a productive means towards the end of moving into that field?
    - ghaff 4y ago
      If I go from product management into software development into some sort of technical marketing or sales role or even to certain types of consulting, there's a fair bit of overlap in the IT industry related to general knowledge of the market, practices, etc. I've changed jobs substantially twice and significant training to transition was never needed at all. And, sure, if you want to change to a completely different area with much less overlap, that's not to say you shouldn't do so. But I certainly couldn't walk right into an unrelated engineering job at this point even if it were related to undergraduate coursework. In fact, it would be probably be easier for me to do a software job today even though I did essentially no programming in school.
mromanuk 4y ago
Thank you, didn't know about her.
nebulous1 4y ago
I don't know about this one. She got a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yale when she was 27. This was in 1934, before Computer Science was an established academic field (it was the 60s before anybody got a "Ph.D. in Computer science"), so everybody was coming from some other academic background, often maths/engineering/physics.
- sn9 4y ago
  And honestly the idea that a PhD in Mathematics from one of the top universities in the world could easily transition into CS or software engineering is one of the least controversial ideas out there.
knorker 4y ago
There are two good reasons why Grace Hoppen should not be used as an example. 1. You are (likely) not Grace Hopper. 2. Computer science was, in a way, much easier back then. At least very different. Listen to the Brian Kernighan being interviewed by Lex Fridman; he keeps repeating that you didn't have to be as awesome back in his days, using himself as an example. Saying "If Grace hopper can do it, then so can I" is like saying "If John Carmack can repeatedly write a AAA game (basically) by himself then so can I"[1]. Not only are you not John Carmack, but this is also not the 1990s. Hell, "throwing triangles at the problem" is just not as hard as it used to be. Marie Curie got the Nobel prize in two disciplines. That's amazing. But doing it in 2022 would be 100x as amazing, making it basically undoable. [1] Simplifying a lot. I'm aware of the story but I think my point is valid still, since it's "true enough" when measuring Carmack's coding impact.
- travisporter 4y ago
  But (1) is suggesting only a woman at that age with those life experiences could have done what she did. I don’t see why that has to be empirically true
  - knorker 4y ago
    It's not how I meant it. She had the experience, education, skill, and drive to succeed when she was put in the right place at the right time. I was with (1) mostly referring to education, skill, and drive. But also If you were a PhD in math in 1934 and wanted to switch to computers, then you were not "competing" with a bunch of people who'd been doing computers since they were 5, because nobody had. Parent post said she went to computers in ~1945, which is just two years after "I think there's a world market for maybe five computers". None of that is transferrable to just anybody's career change decision. With (1) I could have also said that Ricky Gervais went into comedy at close to 40 years old. But you're not Ricky Gervais, so it's not likely to work out for you. It's partly a lottery win, too, where you don't need certain life experiences to win.
  - fn-mote 4y ago
annyeonghada 4y ago
Grace Hopper had a PhD in Mathematics from Yale.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

garyrob 4y ago

Thanks for mentioning in this, which I hadn't seen before. I collect stories of successful aging because I am now 66 and hope to keep creating software, and ideas that can be implemented in it, for some time to come!

michaelcao 4y ago
I admire you. I hope that I could be healthy to code at 66. Wish you all the best
- garyrob 4y ago
  Just eat well and exercise! Exercise is hugely important for maintaining cognitive health. As is eating well. Beyond those things you don't have to do much else!

michaelcao 4y ago

he's a genious. I live in Viet Nam and the unemployment benefit is not good so I'm cautious to switch career. That's why i founded a company and be a founder and CEO as a part time job.

mattjaynes 4y ago

And to continue the Grace Hopper example... Remember that she transitioned to computing from being a Mathematics professor at Yale, so she was able to leverage her previous training into the new career. Try and do the same if you can. Leverage what skills you've already gained to switch into a career where they are a big advantage. Then you are starting nearer to those already in the field, not the beginning.

ghaff 4y ago
>Leverage what skills you've already gained to switch into a career where they are a big advantage. Absolutely. In many cases, there are often a wide range of related/adjacent jobs that are significantly different in various ways but can nonetheless be a fairly natural transition. (Though key word can. I've seen examples that worked and examples that didn't.) On the other hand, I'll go back to school and get a Masters degree in this very tangentially related STEM field is probably going to be a lot harder.
- xyzwave 4y ago
  Harder, how so? And even if harder, wouldn’t it still be a productive means towards the end of moving into that field?
  - ghaff 4y ago
    If I go from product management into software development into some sort of technical marketing or sales role or even to certain types of consulting, there's a fair bit of overlap in the IT industry related to general knowledge of the market, practices, etc. I've changed jobs substantially twice and significant training to transition was never needed at all. And, sure, if you want to change to a completely different area with much less overlap, that's not to say you shouldn't do so. But I certainly couldn't walk right into an unrelated engineering job at this point even if it were related to undergraduate coursework. In fact, it would be probably be easier for me to do a software job today even though I did essentially no programming in school.

mromanuk 4y ago

Thank you, didn't know about her.

nebulous1 4y ago

I don't know about this one. She got a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yale when she was 27. This was in 1934, before Computer Science was an established academic field (it was the 60s before anybody got a "Ph.D. in Computer science"), so everybody was coming from some other academic background, often maths/engineering/physics.

sn9 4y ago
And honestly the idea that a PhD in Mathematics from one of the top universities in the world could easily transition into CS or software engineering is one of the least controversial ideas out there.

knorker 4y ago

There are two good reasons why Grace Hoppen should not be used as an example. 1. You are (likely) not Grace Hopper. 2. Computer science was, in a way, much easier back then. At least very different. Listen to the Brian Kernighan being interviewed by Lex Fridman; he keeps repeating that you didn't have to be as awesome back in his days, using himself as an example. Saying "If Grace hopper can do it, then so can I" is like saying "If John Carmack can repeatedly write a AAA game (basically) by himself then so can I"[1]. Not only are you not John Carmack, but this is also not the 1990s. Hell, "throwing triangles at the problem" is just not as hard as it used to be. Marie Curie got the Nobel prize in two disciplines. That's amazing. But doing it in 2022 would be 100x as amazing, making it basically undoable. [1] Simplifying a lot. I'm aware of the story but I think my point is valid still, since it's "true enough" when measuring Carmack's coding impact.

travisporter 4y ago
But (1) is suggesting only a woman at that age with those life experiences could have done what she did. I don’t see why that has to be empirically true
- knorker 4y ago
  It's not how I meant it. She had the experience, education, skill, and drive to succeed when she was put in the right place at the right time. I was with (1) mostly referring to education, skill, and drive. But also If you were a PhD in math in 1934 and wanted to switch to computers, then you were not "competing" with a bunch of people who'd been doing computers since they were 5, because nobody had. Parent post said she went to computers in ~1945, which is just two years after "I think there's a world market for maybe five computers". None of that is transferrable to just anybody's career change decision. With (1) I could have also said that Ricky Gervais went into comedy at close to 40 years old. But you're not Ricky Gervais, so it's not likely to work out for you. It's partly a lottery win, too, where you don't need certain life experiences to win.
- fn-mote 4y ago

annyeonghada 4y ago

Grace Hopper had a PhD in Mathematics from Yale.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]