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I'm 51, will be 52 later this year. I learned how to code on a Commodore 64 in the 1980s, first MS BASIC then 6502/6510 assembly language. My first profession
by georgemcbay 2y ago
I'm 51, will be 52 later this year.
I learned how to code on a Commodore 64 in the 1980s, first MS BASIC then 6502/6510 assembly language. My first professional jobs were C programming for now ancient Unix systems like SunOS and AIX, then I did a lot of Win32 programming, embedded systems, C++, Java, some Go and eventually switched to mobile devices, Android primarily.
My paying job is still writing code and I still love doing it. I never went the "FAANG" route, preferring smaller lifestyle-type startups to larger extreme growth ones. This route is/was certainly less lucrative but also far less stress and better work/life balance.
In addition to still coding as the "day job" I still write hobby code on the side, over the past few months I've discovered the joys of Kotlin Multiplatform and shipped a somewhat niche app (a PvP game tracker for the videogame Destiny 2) on Android, iOS and Windows with an audience closing in on 1,000 users (890 more precisely) based off of just organic word of mouth (its just a free & ad-free for-fun app so no reason to push it with actual marketing).
So yeah, I'm glad I am still doing this when I'm past 50.