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Ageism is pretty much only talked about when it affects older people. Younger people - broadly millenials and younger - have just had to make piece with the age

Ageism is pretty much only talked about when it affects older people. Younger people - broadly millenials and younger - have just had to make piece with the ageism they've faced their entire lives and continue to face. I understand that one day I'll be old too, but my sympathies are limited and it'll be nothing truly new for us when people start dismissing us for being old, since people have been dismissing us for being young plenty. It'll probably hurt a little more since I tend to identify more with younger people than Gen X or older millenials, but in the end it won't be anything I'm not used to. So consider this me playing the world's smallest violin.

raziel2p 3y ago
how do you think ageism affects young people?
screachymodem 3y ago
Hang in there buddy. We hire qualified people of all ages who like to learn and get their work done. I'm GenX and I've heard all the age stuff before in my youth as well. (1) Be yourself (2) Provide value (3) Take on some of the boring stuff that adds to business continuity Number 3 is not sexy, but good management notices.
- SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
  Thanks. I appreciate your words of encouragement.
antod 3y ago
That is such a weird take for a young software dev to have - you are uniquely positioned in an intersection of both age and the industry you're in to have faced extremely little ageism. Compared to just about anyone else working their way up and gaining experience elsewhere, you've had it easy. The lack of perspective is staggering. You'd fully deserve that violin played for you later on in your career.
- SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
  That's just a bunch of empty assertions you're putting forward, you need to back those up with an actual explanation of how you formed those beliefs. You might say most of my comment was just a bunch of assertions, but they were assertions about my own perception of my own experience. I think you have a higher burden to elaborate when you're making assertions about someone else's experience, especially when it contradicts what they allege.
  - antod 3y ago
    I didn't realise this was an assertion scoring debate rather than just a discussion, but here goes: * I have experienced what software development was like 25yrs ago, when it also took a lot longer to gain seniority and responsibility. * I started my career in a different engineering field. I saw a very different age<->seniority progression than the quick one in software. In fact that was why I switched to tech even if software was slower back then than now. The combination of both those was the basis for claiming that young software devs have been in an extraordinarily privileged position in recent years. Do you have any idea what it's like outside software? You're going to have to make a better case that young software engineers these days experience ageism at a similar level to other professions or time periods. It is now an industry that skews young and quickly discards age. You'd also need to distinguish between lack of experience and just being young to claim it's ageism. And the age groups you were deriding were the ones that broke down those barriers for younger devs in the first place. Did you consider they would've experienced worse and sought to change it? Your non specific comment seemed like an extremely self centered view of the wider industry that lacked perspective and contradicted a near universally understood situation. You were the one making the extraordinary claim that needed backup. Your incredibly broad generalisation got a necessarily broad reply which you're now complaining about just being an empty assertion. You did nothing to elaborate about your experience was - what did you expect? Maybe if you'd been more specific about what you've faced you would've got different answers.
andybak 3y ago
> younger people [...] faced ageism their whole lives. You didn't really read that part through before posting, did you?
- SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
  Not sure what you mean.
mixmastamyk 3y ago
Everyone had to get educated one way or the other and hit the pavement for a job. It's just natural to need to prove yourself when you're at the least valuable point in your career. Facing that again when at your most experienced and valuable makes a lot less sense.
coolThingsFirst 3y ago
Millenials are themselves oldish
- timeon 3y ago
  Yeah I've already been called 'boomer'. Like what?! I'm not even genX.

raziel2p 3y ago

how do you think ageism affects young people?

screachymodem 3y ago

Hang in there buddy. We hire qualified people of all ages who like to learn and get their work done. I'm GenX and I've heard all the age stuff before in my youth as well. (1) Be yourself (2) Provide value (3) Take on some of the boring stuff that adds to business continuity Number 3 is not sexy, but good management notices.

SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
Thanks. I appreciate your words of encouragement.

antod 3y ago

That is such a weird take for a young software dev to have - you are uniquely positioned in an intersection of both age and the industry you're in to have faced extremely little ageism. Compared to just about anyone else working their way up and gaining experience elsewhere, you've had it easy. The lack of perspective is staggering. You'd fully deserve that violin played for you later on in your career.

SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
That's just a bunch of empty assertions you're putting forward, you need to back those up with an actual explanation of how you formed those beliefs. You might say most of my comment was just a bunch of assertions, but they were assertions about my own perception of my own experience. I think you have a higher burden to elaborate when you're making assertions about someone else's experience, especially when it contradicts what they allege.
- antod 3y ago
  I didn't realise this was an assertion scoring debate rather than just a discussion, but here goes: * I have experienced what software development was like 25yrs ago, when it also took a lot longer to gain seniority and responsibility. * I started my career in a different engineering field. I saw a very different age<->seniority progression than the quick one in software. In fact that was why I switched to tech even if software was slower back then than now. The combination of both those was the basis for claiming that young software devs have been in an extraordinarily privileged position in recent years. Do you have any idea what it's like outside software? You're going to have to make a better case that young software engineers these days experience ageism at a similar level to other professions or time periods. It is now an industry that skews young and quickly discards age. You'd also need to distinguish between lack of experience and just being young to claim it's ageism. And the age groups you were deriding were the ones that broke down those barriers for younger devs in the first place. Did you consider they would've experienced worse and sought to change it? Your non specific comment seemed like an extremely self centered view of the wider industry that lacked perspective and contradicted a near universally understood situation. You were the one making the extraordinary claim that needed backup. Your incredibly broad generalisation got a necessarily broad reply which you're now complaining about just being an empty assertion. You did nothing to elaborate about your experience was - what did you expect? Maybe if you'd been more specific about what you've faced you would've got different answers.

andybak 3y ago

> younger people [...] faced ageism their whole lives. You didn't really read that part through before posting, did you?

SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
Not sure what you mean.

mixmastamyk 3y ago

Everyone had to get educated one way or the other and hit the pavement for a job. It's just natural to need to prove yourself when you're at the least valuable point in your career. Facing that again when at your most experienced and valuable makes a lot less sense.

coolThingsFirst 3y ago

Millenials are themselves oldish

timeon 3y ago
Yeah I've already been called 'boomer'. Like what?! I'm not even genX.