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My father, who is now 76, introduced an Apple II into the home. He wrote a number of programs himself for a business he started (that lasted 30 years). Followed

My father, who is now 76, introduced an Apple II into the home. He wrote a number of programs himself for a business he started (that lasted 30 years). Followed by a series of PCs, the first of which had the pre-Windows 95 GeOS on it. These days, he fumbles with his phone; half of the time hanging up while trying to answer it. His texts messages are usually unintelligible as he totally relies on voice to text. This can mostly be attributed to cognitive decline following a major heart attack which was accompanied by an undiagnosed stroke, a minor heart attack, and a diagnosed stroke. He still dabbles with Kodi and VPNs but is always at least a year behind the curve, and new technology thoroughly confuses him. That's left me wondering: will there be a point at which I struggle, after having spent decades writing code that powers the web?

TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
Well, my dad wrote sophisticated engineering programs for mini's, and taught me to program BASIC, but now he needs me to get his new laptop to print on wifi, and install a weather app on his Android phone. The world is quite a bit different from 40 years ago, and you do have to put in some effort to keep up with the changing paradigms, but I think that effort is up to each of us. What I worry about is being able to see the screen, and type. As long as I can still do both, I will probably never retire.
hk1337 4y ago
Apple IIc was our first family computer (Really mine since I used it most). I loved that I could carry it around and plug it into the TV and have a color monitor. Apple IIe was also used a bit in school.
colpabar 4y ago
>That's left me wondering: will there be a point at which I struggle, after having spent decades writing code that powers the web? I'd say it's not that tech will become too difficult to use, but the constant and frequent changes will start to annoy you to a point where you just don't invest as much time into learning how the new stuff works. YMMV, but I am less than half your dad's age and I'm already starting to feel it.
- spikej 4y ago
  I used to spend hours customizing everything I used to make them "just right" and updates to software would always inevitibly break them, and I'd repeat the cycle. As I've gotten older with less free time, I've just started changing my own preferences and workflows to fit the defaults. Even that doesn't always seem to be the way as UI/UX changes mean disruptions for disruptions sakes rather than changes that make my life easier...
  - _carbyau_ 4y ago
    I do this too. Nowadays, even my phone ringtone is as it was out of the box.
A_No_Name_Mouse 4y ago
I'm 50 and I start to struggle. Not because I can't keep up with the tech but because I refuse to. No smart tv or doorbell, a 2004 unconnected car, physical light switches etc. I spend too much time figuring out what printer will not DRM me into buying branded ink. I wonder how much longer I can keep up with this, because everything is becoming smart and "as a service". It seems the perfect products for me are the products from 15 years ago that I can hardly buy any more.

TheRealDunkirk 4y ago

Well, my dad wrote sophisticated engineering programs for mini's, and taught me to program BASIC, but now he needs me to get his new laptop to print on wifi, and install a weather app on his Android phone. The world is quite a bit different from 40 years ago, and you do have to put in some effort to keep up with the changing paradigms, but I think that effort is up to each of us. What I worry about is being able to see the screen, and type. As long as I can still do both, I will probably never retire.

hk1337 4y ago

Apple IIc was our first family computer (Really mine since I used it most). I loved that I could carry it around and plug it into the TV and have a color monitor. Apple IIe was also used a bit in school.

colpabar 4y ago

>That's left me wondering: will there be a point at which I struggle, after having spent decades writing code that powers the web? I'd say it's not that tech will become too difficult to use, but the constant and frequent changes will start to annoy you to a point where you just don't invest as much time into learning how the new stuff works. YMMV, but I am less than half your dad's age and I'm already starting to feel it.

spikej 4y ago
I used to spend hours customizing everything I used to make them "just right" and updates to software would always inevitibly break them, and I'd repeat the cycle. As I've gotten older with less free time, I've just started changing my own preferences and workflows to fit the defaults. Even that doesn't always seem to be the way as UI/UX changes mean disruptions for disruptions sakes rather than changes that make my life easier...
- _carbyau_ 4y ago
  I do this too. Nowadays, even my phone ringtone is as it was out of the box.

A_No_Name_Mouse 4y ago

I'm 50 and I start to struggle. Not because I can't keep up with the tech but because I refuse to. No smart tv or doorbell, a 2004 unconnected car, physical light switches etc. I spend too much time figuring out what printer will not DRM me into buying branded ink. I wonder how much longer I can keep up with this, because everything is becoming smart and "as a service". It seems the perfect products for me are the products from 15 years ago that I can hardly buy any more.