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I understand the motivation behind this advice, but now that I'm past 50, I'd say that everyone needs to decide for themselves whether they are still pushing to

I understand the motivation behind this advice, but now that I'm past 50, I'd say that everyone needs to decide for themselves whether they are still pushing to maintain youth, or whether they are deliberately embracing aging. At some point, you stop exercising "hard", and start exercising "enough". The point is the same - to stay healthy. But you are not going to hit your lifetime peak fitness. Instead, you want to build a solid base of strength so that you still are fully capable and mobile into your 70s and 80s. As far as staying up on tech, again that depends on how long you really want to be in tech. Some people may want to remain technical for a couple more decades... but some of us are happy to let others take the lead, while we settle back into secondary positions, or pivot our ambition to leadership instead of hands-on work. What I'd recommend is some deep introspection to decide for yourself whether you are young or old, and act accordingly. "old" !== "bad". It is more a decision of whether you are still climbing, or simply enjoying the ride at a comfortable cruising altitude. I might not get hired by startups or FAANG for being in cruising mode, but once you get to this point, you aren't interested in such jobs anyway. The point is to figure out what is right for yourself, and don't push youth too far. There are natural changes to the pace of life as you age, and acceptance of that helps life satisfaction.

cdaringe 1y ago
Ya, I did what I thought was moderate (not high difficulty) exercise and with just slight imperfect form ended with a permanent life long injury that is manageable, but difficult and present every day. I was apparently vulnerable to it, but I only learned that after the fact. Consistent, gradual, not too strenuous is a lesson I wish I would have learned before hand.
scarface_74 1y ago
> I might not get hired by startups or FAANG for being in cruising mode There is “One Weird Trick” to getting hired at FAANG as an old guy. Don’t try to get in as a software engineer. Amazon, Google and Microsoft all have cloud Professional Services department where they value a combination of technical knowledge, leadership, and communication skills and you don’t have to do the leetCode grind. They are all full time positions working directly for the companies with the same (but usually about 20% lower) compensation packages with cash + RSUs. They are positions like Solution Architects, Account Managers, Engagement Managers, Sales, and billable consultants. That’s how I got into AWS at 46 (no longer there) and until last year at least, Google/GCP was hiring former and current AWS ProServe employees like crazy. I ignored their outreaches because at 51 I would rather get an anal probe with a cactus than ever work at BigTech or any large company again and definitely won’t be going back into an office. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with business travel (been there done that). While I am still officially an IC these days, I spend most of my time either leading implementations, doing discovery sessions as a post sales architect and some hands on work when necessary.

cdaringe 1y ago

Ya, I did what I thought was moderate (not high difficulty) exercise and with just slight imperfect form ended with a permanent life long injury that is manageable, but difficult and present every day. I was apparently vulnerable to it, but I only learned that after the fact. Consistent, gradual, not too strenuous is a lesson I wish I would have learned before hand.

scarface_74 1y ago

> I might not get hired by startups or FAANG for being in cruising mode There is “One Weird Trick” to getting hired at FAANG as an old guy. Don’t try to get in as a software engineer. Amazon, Google and Microsoft all have cloud Professional Services department where they value a combination of technical knowledge, leadership, and communication skills and you don’t have to do the leetCode grind. They are all full time positions working directly for the companies with the same (but usually about 20% lower) compensation packages with cash + RSUs. They are positions like Solution Architects, Account Managers, Engagement Managers, Sales, and billable consultants. That’s how I got into AWS at 46 (no longer there) and until last year at least, Google/GCP was hiring former and current AWS ProServe employees like crazy. I ignored their outreaches because at 51 I would rather get an anal probe with a cactus than ever work at BigTech or any large company again and definitely won’t be going back into an office. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with business travel (been there done that). While I am still officially an IC these days, I spend most of my time either leading implementations, doing discovery sessions as a post sales architect and some hands on work when necessary.