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I hope you're doing okay because this is pretty bleak. I also have a bleak outlook on the future, the healthcare costs in particular. I don't want to spend yea

I hope you're doing okay because this is pretty bleak. I also have a bleak outlook on the future, the healthcare costs in particular. I don't want to spend years building up money and then have cancer wipe it all out in just months. I haven't (yet) added "tech career ends at 40" to my set of looming tragedies. I'm currently more worried for people starting their careers, they seem replaceable by LLMs. Perhaps I have a false sense of security.

prettyblocks 2y ago
Lots of doomers on here, yet somehow I keep meeting highly technical people still working on interesting things that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and older. I think HN probably skews really young and tech tends to fetishize youth, so this is the mentality you get.
- jsfunfun 2y ago
  I’m 64 and just landed a great new job … it’s always my long history of C/C++ and mobile skills that get me in the door.
  - AR-shinobi 2y ago
    I needed to hear something like this. I'm 61, got laid off last April and haven't had an interview since June. I have a long history in PHP and Perl, half a decade on Golang, Vue, React and devops. I was beginning to think that ageism was playing against me. Now I know I need to dig deeper.. thanks.
  - OnionBlender 2y ago
    What do you by "Mobile skills"? Like writing Android or iOS apps using Java/Kotlin/Swift, or do you mostly write C++ for those devices? I mostly write C++ services/libraries for Android, but I've wondered if learning the app dev side of things is worth it. I'm sort of concerned that mobile app dev pays less than system level C++ work.
- Suzuran 2y ago
  I am 46. I am more or less describing my present situation, except I haven't yet been fired. I say "yet" because my employer's products are government-facing and the incoming administration has priorities incompatible with the usage of our products. I am told I work on interesting things, but the interesting things are my hobbies and not anything related to my employment. My day job is largely a slowly losing battle against technical debt.
- chasd00 2y ago
  I'm 48 and the only age bias i've encountered so far has been me against myself. Usually it's like I think i'm too old to learn something new, or don't have the energy to keep up, but if I give myself the chance then it turns out I'm wrong. You'll surprise yourself with what you're capable of if you're actually willing to make the effort.
- skirmish 2y ago
  At 50, I pivoted from enterprise-style Java server development to AI (computer vision, now LLMs), and I am having fun at work every day.
  - prettyblocks 2y ago
    What kind of AI projects are you working on?
    - skirmish 2y ago
      Adapting ML models to run inference on devices: phones, smart cameras, edge accelerators. Computer vision models first, now LLMs.
Suzuran 2y ago
I am not sure I would call what I am doing "okay", but I am still here. I can't say the same for many of my friends. It was full renal failure in my case. I had no insurance. My savings were gone in the first two days. My entire medical debt is now such that it would take somewhere between three and four full lifetimes at the highest wage I earned during my career to pay it all down, and that assumes that no further debt was incurred in those extra lifetimes.
bloomingkales 2y ago
This person sounds incredibly negative and delusional. We're not animals that put people into a job in there 20s and say your career is over in 15 years. If your worldview is that people are animals, then yeah, you know. Work on yourself.
- Suzuran 2y ago
  You are correct, we are not animals. I do not view us as animals, but it is not my view that matters. The view that matters is that of the corporations who do the hiring, and for the most part they view us as expendable resources (I mean, come on, it's literally in the term "Human Resources") to be acquired and used until all possible value has been extracted from us, at which point we are discarded. This, I feel, is ultimately where ageism comes from. 40 is not just some number they pulled out of their collective asses, it's the approximately-average age where the cohort that joined the DP/IT workforce in the 80s and 90s is burned out and used up.
  - bloomingkales 2y ago
    I think this is a human condition. I passed by a department store recently and all I heard were the cashiers complaining about their job. It's what people do, they literally cannot stop complaining about their apparent slavery. The older I get the more stubborn I've become in my beliefs.

prettyblocks 2y ago

Lots of doomers on here, yet somehow I keep meeting highly technical people still working on interesting things that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and older. I think HN probably skews really young and tech tends to fetishize youth, so this is the mentality you get.

jsfunfun 2y ago
I’m 64 and just landed a great new job … it’s always my long history of C/C++ and mobile skills that get me in the door.
- AR-shinobi 2y ago
  I needed to hear something like this. I'm 61, got laid off last April and haven't had an interview since June. I have a long history in PHP and Perl, half a decade on Golang, Vue, React and devops. I was beginning to think that ageism was playing against me. Now I know I need to dig deeper.. thanks.
- OnionBlender 2y ago
  What do you by "Mobile skills"? Like writing Android or iOS apps using Java/Kotlin/Swift, or do you mostly write C++ for those devices? I mostly write C++ services/libraries for Android, but I've wondered if learning the app dev side of things is worth it. I'm sort of concerned that mobile app dev pays less than system level C++ work.
Suzuran 2y ago
I am 46. I am more or less describing my present situation, except I haven't yet been fired. I say "yet" because my employer's products are government-facing and the incoming administration has priorities incompatible with the usage of our products. I am told I work on interesting things, but the interesting things are my hobbies and not anything related to my employment. My day job is largely a slowly losing battle against technical debt.
chasd00 2y ago
I'm 48 and the only age bias i've encountered so far has been me against myself. Usually it's like I think i'm too old to learn something new, or don't have the energy to keep up, but if I give myself the chance then it turns out I'm wrong. You'll surprise yourself with what you're capable of if you're actually willing to make the effort.
skirmish 2y ago
At 50, I pivoted from enterprise-style Java server development to AI (computer vision, now LLMs), and I am having fun at work every day.
- prettyblocks 2y ago
  What kind of AI projects are you working on?
  - skirmish 2y ago
    Adapting ML models to run inference on devices: phones, smart cameras, edge accelerators. Computer vision models first, now LLMs.

Suzuran 2y ago

I am not sure I would call what I am doing "okay", but I am still here. I can't say the same for many of my friends. It was full renal failure in my case. I had no insurance. My savings were gone in the first two days. My entire medical debt is now such that it would take somewhere between three and four full lifetimes at the highest wage I earned during my career to pay it all down, and that assumes that no further debt was incurred in those extra lifetimes.

bloomingkales 2y ago

This person sounds incredibly negative and delusional. We're not animals that put people into a job in there 20s and say your career is over in 15 years. If your worldview is that people are animals, then yeah, you know. Work on yourself.

Suzuran 2y ago
You are correct, we are not animals. I do not view us as animals, but it is not my view that matters. The view that matters is that of the corporations who do the hiring, and for the most part they view us as expendable resources (I mean, come on, it's literally in the term "Human Resources") to be acquired and used until all possible value has been extracted from us, at which point we are discarded. This, I feel, is ultimately where ageism comes from. 40 is not just some number they pulled out of their collective asses, it's the approximately-average age where the cohort that joined the DP/IT workforce in the 80s and 90s is burned out and used up.
- bloomingkales 2y ago
  I think this is a human condition. I passed by a department store recently and all I heard were the cashiers complaining about their job. It's what people do, they literally cannot stop complaining about their apparent slavery. The older I get the more stubborn I've become in my beliefs.