4 ms·

Why wouldn’t you, other than ageism? How about other professionals like lawyers and doctors?

majormajor 4y ago
In software development the other big elephant in the room is the age of the field itself. If the world thirty years ago needed fewer software developers, then you'd have fewer 20 year old new software developers - and that strongly reduces the odds of having as many 50 year old developers today as 20 year old developers today.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  If your definition is focused on javascript slingers, ok. But it’s been ~eighty years since WWII and the Top Secret Rosies and Bletchley Park. Business and govts got the on board with automation early. Population has vastly increased as well, which affects all professions.
  - majormajor 4y ago
    80 years is a very young profession, still. How long have their been lawyers training in university programs? Doctors? The answer is in centuries and so you'd expect a lot more supply/demand equilibrium. How many times has that automation resulted in the business saying "great, things are easier" instead of "great, that's quicker now, let's do more things with the time we freed up?" I've only seen the latter, which just breeds more* need for more automation. You can see it in how much software the average business employee used 40 years ago vs today, even halfway through your timeline.
    - mixmastamyk 4y ago
      Yes, though 80 years of workers is enough for almost everyone starting to be dead already. So “centuries” is not quite as biting as it sounds. Engineering does happen to be that old of course. My father ran his two-person business with spreadsheets, word processing, and games (haha) about 40 years ago. I think people forget how much tech was around in the old days. Moon landing and SR-71 happened in the late sixties. Mythical Man Month talks of the software/PM angle and most chapters apply directly to today.
kjs3 4y ago
A couple of years ago I went to a birthday party for a fellow who was one of my attorneys back it the wild, wild dot-bomb days. He's still a respected partner, go-to contract law guy and absolutely as sharp as the day I met him. He was turning 80.
stcroixx 4y ago
I don’t know, I’ve seen maybe 10 in my 25 years in the industry and they were mostly all at the start of my career in a mainframe shop. I ‘taught’ them AIX as we moved a critical system off the big iron onto a RISC system. I don’t think I’ve seen any in the wild in over 15 years. Other professions age doesn’t seem to matter much at all.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  At a certain point internet shops refused to hire me, so not surprised you don't see any. (No, I specialize in Python and JS not COBOL so shouldn't be considered out of date.)
yodsanklai 4y ago
> other than ageism Ageism is a thing. Then our field is somewhat unique because it's evolving extremely fast, I don't know about Lawyers and Doctors, but I doubt things change nearly as fast. I used to teach CS. I routinely had to teach stuff I just learned a few years before, even in undergraduate classes. Sometimes I learned things from my students... In comparison, my 60 years old maths colleague has been teaching the same linear algebra class his whole life.

In software development the other big elephant in the room is the age of the field itself. If the world thirty years ago needed fewer software developers, then you'd have fewer 20 year old new software developers - and that strongly reduces the odds of having as many 50 year old developers today as 20 year old developers today.

mixmastamyk 4y ago
If your definition is focused on javascript slingers, ok. But it’s been ~eighty years since WWII and the Top Secret Rosies and Bletchley Park. Business and govts got the on board with automation early. Population has vastly increased as well, which affects all professions.
- majormajor 4y ago
  80 years is a very young profession, still. How long have their been lawyers training in university programs? Doctors? The answer is in centuries and so you'd expect a lot more supply/demand equilibrium. How many times has that automation resulted in the business saying "great, things are easier" instead of "great, that's quicker now, let's do more things with the time we freed up?" I've only seen the latter, which just breeds more* need for more automation. You can see it in how much software the average business employee used 40 years ago vs today, even halfway through your timeline.
  - mixmastamyk 4y ago
    Yes, though 80 years of workers is enough for almost everyone starting to be dead already. So “centuries” is not quite as biting as it sounds. Engineering does happen to be that old of course. My father ran his two-person business with spreadsheets, word processing, and games (haha) about 40 years ago. I think people forget how much tech was around in the old days. Moon landing and SR-71 happened in the late sixties. Mythical Man Month talks of the software/PM angle and most chapters apply directly to today.

kjs3 4y ago

A couple of years ago I went to a birthday party for a fellow who was one of my attorneys back it the wild, wild dot-bomb days. He's still a respected partner, go-to contract law guy and absolutely as sharp as the day I met him. He was turning 80.

stcroixx 4y ago

I don’t know, I’ve seen maybe 10 in my 25 years in the industry and they were mostly all at the start of my career in a mainframe shop. I ‘taught’ them AIX as we moved a critical system off the big iron onto a RISC system. I don’t think I’ve seen any in the wild in over 15 years. Other professions age doesn’t seem to matter much at all.

mixmastamyk 4y ago
At a certain point internet shops refused to hire me, so not surprised you don't see any. (No, I specialize in Python and JS not COBOL so shouldn't be considered out of date.)

yodsanklai 4y ago

> other than ageism Ageism is a thing. Then our field is somewhat unique because it's evolving extremely fast, I don't know about Lawyers and Doctors, but I doubt things change nearly as fast. I used to teach CS. I routinely had to teach stuff I just learned a few years before, even in undergraduate classes. Sometimes I learned things from my students... In comparison, my 60 years old maths colleague has been teaching the same linear algebra class his whole life.