Older developer here (I started my career by writing 3D graphics software in the mid-80's). I recently spent a number of years in semi-retirement, concentratin

Older developer here (I started my career by writing 3D graphics software in the mid-80's). I recently spent a number of years in semi-retirement, concentrating on my photography [0] and filmmaking [1] and thinking I was done with (and too old for) software development. Professional software development had lost its lure for me as the CG and VFX industry had grown into a massive factory-like industry. Though I had worked on some satisfying projects -- writing the animation code used in "Jurassic Park", leading the R&D team for "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", working on "The Hobbit" movies -- I had lost the desire to write software. Then about a year ago a friend asked me to teach him some Common Lisp online. So I wrote some tutorials and as we did our sessions [2] I got increasingly enthusiastic about developing for fun, especially if I could use the tool of my choice (Common Lisp) for the domain of my choice (computer graphics). So I started a new 3D graphics project and made it open source [3]. Even started a blog about the journey [4]. Although I don't consider myself to be up on the latest buzzwords and web architectures and the only scrum I'm familiar with is from my rugby-playing days, I have found -- rediscovered -- the pleasure of designing and implementing software. Surprisingly (to me at least), I don't feel over the hill. Yes, I probably can't do the marathon programming sessions I used to do, and all-nighters are a thing of the past, but I don't find my mind being any less sharp than it used to be. [0] https://www.kardanphotography.com https://www.kardanphotography.com [1] https://vimeo.com/kavehkardan https://vimeo.com/kavehkardan [2] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTA6M4yZF0MzsMlNL0N67tIU12OLQ-R5K https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTA6M4yZF0MzsMlNL0N67... [3] https://github.com/kaveh808/kons-9 https://github.com/kaveh808/kons-9 [4] https://medium.com/@kaveh808/once-more-into-the-breach-a-new-common-lisp-3d-graphics-project-d401bfa083d https://medium.com/@kaveh808/once-more-into-the-breach-a-new...