6 ms·

I'm 85 and I Learned To Code. You Should Too.

195 points by zachgalant 14y ago

widk 14y ago
Fantastic. That flashing, pulsating roulette wheel is wild. ;) I hope I'm (still) coding when I'm 85. Keep going!
DigitalSea 14y ago
Coding is good for the brain, it keeps you thinking and on your toes. I hope I live long enough to get to 85 and am still coding. This was inspiring, if an 85 year old can learn Javascript maybe I can learn other languages I've been putting off learning because I felt as though they were too hard.
- padrian2ss 14y ago
  No! that's piano playing and not coding
mikeleeorg 14y ago
In case you're curious about this 85 year old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucFB9tk8zQc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucFB9tk8zQc
jere 14y ago
Seizure warning. Anyway, very impressive stuff. Too often, people seem to give up on learning new stuff at an older age. Usually around 30.
- michaelochurch 14y ago
  I think when I run a company, instead of targeting only young people (on the assumption that they can learn new stuff faster) I'm going to give a bump to people who are 35+ and are still learning new stuff. It's the same theory as is behind choosing an attractive older person. You know that the good-looking 35-year-old has started to age and is still taking care of him- or herself; the good-looking 20-year-old could fall apart in a few years once the metabolism slows down. Everyone's curious at 22. I want the people who had enough of an insubordinate/rebellious streak to protect their creativity and curiosity through their 20s, despite their corporate masters' attempts to destroy it.
  - DigitalJack 14y ago
    Yeah, because it's pretty damn remarkable for somebody to learn something at the ripe old age of 35. Imagine that. Still learning new stuff.
    - michaelochurch 14y ago
      It shouldn't be, but 13 years of corporate subordination and forced creative atrophy puts a lot of people into an out-of-shape state that's hard to recover from. There's nothing natural about this sort of premature mediocrity. If we tear the corporate system down, Bastille-style, we'll see a lot more badass older people, which will be a great thing for the world.
      - heathlilley 14y ago
        Well I'm here to say that you can break the shackles. At 37 I might still toil in the Java mines during the day, but at night I am learning Ruby, Rails, NoSQL, zsh and other Open Source/less than enterprisey stuff. I might not be able to debug a rails app as fast as I can a JEE app but I can still grok/reason/solve issues on the platform.
        michaelochurch 14y ago
        You absolutely can break the shackles, and should. I'm just saying it's (admirably) insubordinate. From a typical boss-man perspective, your performance is reduced by this extracurricular work. You're probably working late into the evening, and thinking about Ruby during the day. You're probably planning a move to something better. You can't be fired for that alone, but it puts you at risk of being in the socially excluded, not-getting-the-benefit-of-the-doubt category. One of the issues with side projects is that admitting to having them breaks the Fundamental Subordinate Dishonesty (http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/fundamental-subordinate-dishonesty/ http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/fundamental-s...). You're "supposed" to be putting all available energy into your job, or at least respect authority enough to put effort into that illusion. Vacation is okay: that's just taking a break. Off-hours work isn't (in typical workplaces).
- mixmax 14y ago
  Anecdotally I'd say this isn't true. I'm 42, and in the last 5 years I've learned coding, welding and a few other things. When I look around at my friends, many of them have also been learning new things. One of my best friends, who has been doing rockshows and awards his whole life, has started writing a childrens book, and has just come out as transgendered so he's learning a lot about writing, how to do nails, walk in high heels, etc. I might be biased because I'm lucky enough to have unusual, crazy and progressive friends, but I think learning new stuff has less to do with age, and more to do with social factors such as having kids (and thus not a lot of time), or having large monthly expenses due to cars, houses, etc. These things are correlAted of course, but I don't think age per se is a factor.
- lutze 14y ago
  30 isn't older you cheeky fucker!
  - lutze 14y ago
    Wow, I suppose I should articulate this a little better. It's easy to lose perspective when you immerse yourself in a culture that celebrates young successful entrepreneurs so much. The comment referring people in their 30s as "older people" belies a pessimistic and unrealistic outlook that this perspective can sometimes give. Just because you aren't Zuckerberg by the time you're 22 doesn't mean your life is over. Thirty is not old. In fact there's no such thing as old, which I would've thought is something this blog is making plain. There's always something new to learn, always opportunities on the horizon.
    - EliRivers 14y ago
      Not being Zuckerberg is surely a reason to be happy? :)
  - jere 14y ago
    Ha. I hope it was obvious it was somewhat of a joke, especially in the context of an article about an 85 year old. Though I also had in mind this Benjamin Franklin quote: "Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five."
    - lutze 14y ago
      You got me. In my defence, that was a textbook case of Poe's Law.
- tschill 14y ago
  I agree with this as a general statement. The usual trend is that we learn so many new things while growing up. We attend school everyday. We get our degrees, get our jobs, and then we specialize. We are not so much learning any more as honing our already acquired skill set to mastery. There is a difference. Lifelong learning outside of your skill set is much better for your brain and decreases the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's and other age-related cognitive illnesses. So having the mindset to learn something new at 85 is amazing and I hope to always retain that thirst for knowledge. It's good for you!
- laumars 14y ago
  > "Too often, people seem to give up on learning new stuff at an older age. Usually around 30." Since when has 30 been "an older age"? It's still well within the 1st half of a persons life (assuming average life expectancy), never mind the latter part of the 2nd half. As a 30-something myself, I'm constantly learning new technologies (only this week I started teaching myself Go). I know the computer industry is a very youth-orientated sector. But calling 30 year olds "old timers" is a touch unfair.
- cafard 14y ago
  At age 30, I dimly remembered some Fortran IV from a freshman class. At 32, I taught myself assembler (a now obsolete one), at 33 went back to school...
jkeesh 14y ago
We are making CodeHS to be as accessible as possible. We've had students of all ages, and it would be great to get feedback from everyone.
- alexholehouse 14y ago
  FYI, the "Please support our crowdfunding campaign CS in HS." link from that blog post doesn't work. Just a heads up.
  - zachgalant 14y ago
    whoah, thanks. should be fixed now.
apathetic 14y ago
but... http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/please-dont-learn-to-code.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/please-dont-learn-t...
- mylittlepony 14y ago
  I'm free to do whatever I want. I chose to learn informatics for the fat paycheck mostly. So what? I happened to like programming, nowadays I spend a lot of my free time building stuff for no reason, and have fun doing that. But in the end, if I were rich, I'm not sure I would be doing any of this. I would probably be playing ping pong all day long, or travelling around the world, or investing in space exploration, or learning astrophysics.
mtgx 14y ago
10 days left to support CodeHS, by the way: http://www.indiegogo.com/csinhs http://www.indiegogo.com/csinhs
jaequery 14y ago
we need to get this guy on the guiness book of world record for becoming the oldest coder!
JeremyMorgan 14y ago
The idea that your brain turns to mush at 30 is completely ridiculous anyway. Good for him!
padrian2ss 14y ago
Hold your breath grandpa, doing imperative programming is something that you are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
finspin 14y ago
Here is the code he wrote (with help of tutors): http://pastebin.com/93548yF7 http://pastebin.com/93548yF7
Tomis02 14y ago
Should I what? Be 85, or learn to code? I so hate people telling me what I should or shouldn't do without even knowing me.
elomarns 14y ago
Nice story. I believe anyone can learn anything, regardless the age. And I agree with the author, know how to program is a useful knowledge in a world where computers are everywhere. And it also helps to improve the logical thinking. But I'm not among those who think that everybody must to learn programming.
olgeni 14y ago
I tried a few times, even with colors only, and didn't win once... Now I have to stick to it as a matter of principle :)
Spoom 14y ago
The comments on the article itself (not here) make me sad. It almost immediately devolves into a language war. Why is it that some people always have to find something to complain about? I bet a conversation with the author of this article would be very interesting. With the attitude he demonstrated here, he probably has a lot to teach.
- endersshadow 14y ago
  People have a need to feel superior to other people. I mean, I get it, you're super smart because you're able to critique programming languages. But at the end of the day, this guy was trying to learn a little about coding and did. And that's pretty cool. People have lost their sense of wonder, and it's been replaced with cynicism and egomania. C'est la vie.

195 points by zachgalant 14y ago

widk 14y ago

Fantastic. That flashing, pulsating roulette wheel is wild. ;) I hope I'm (still) coding when I'm 85. Keep going!

Coding is good for the brain, it keeps you thinking and on your toes. I hope I live long enough to get to 85 and am still coding. This was inspiring, if an 85 year old can learn Javascript maybe I can learn other languages I've been putting off learning because I felt as though they were too hard.

padrian2ss 14y ago
No! that's piano playing and not coding

mikeleeorg 14y ago

In case you're curious about this 85 year old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucFB9tk8zQc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucFB9tk8zQc

jere 14y ago

Seizure warning. Anyway, very impressive stuff. Too often, people seem to give up on learning new stuff at an older age. Usually around 30.

michaelochurch 14y ago
I think when I run a company, instead of targeting only young people (on the assumption that they can learn new stuff faster) I'm going to give a bump to people who are 35+ and are still learning new stuff. It's the same theory as is behind choosing an attractive older person. You know that the good-looking 35-year-old has started to age and is still taking care of him- or herself; the good-looking 20-year-old could fall apart in a few years once the metabolism slows down. Everyone's curious at 22. I want the people who had enough of an insubordinate/rebellious streak to protect their creativity and curiosity through their 20s, despite their corporate masters' attempts to destroy it.
- DigitalJack 14y ago
  Yeah, because it's pretty damn remarkable for somebody to learn something at the ripe old age of 35. Imagine that. Still learning new stuff.
  - michaelochurch 14y ago
    It shouldn't be, but 13 years of corporate subordination and forced creative atrophy puts a lot of people into an out-of-shape state that's hard to recover from. There's nothing natural about this sort of premature mediocrity. If we tear the corporate system down, Bastille-style, we'll see a lot more badass older people, which will be a great thing for the world.
    - heathlilley 14y ago
      Well I'm here to say that you can break the shackles. At 37 I might still toil in the Java mines during the day, but at night I am learning Ruby, Rails, NoSQL, zsh and other Open Source/less than enterprisey stuff. I might not be able to debug a rails app as fast as I can a JEE app but I can still grok/reason/solve issues on the platform.
      - michaelochurch 14y ago
        You absolutely can break the shackles, and should. I'm just saying it's (admirably) insubordinate. From a typical boss-man perspective, your performance is reduced by this extracurricular work. You're probably working late into the evening, and thinking about Ruby during the day. You're probably planning a move to something better. You can't be fired for that alone, but it puts you at risk of being in the socially excluded, not-getting-the-benefit-of-the-doubt category. One of the issues with side projects is that admitting to having them breaks the Fundamental Subordinate Dishonesty (http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/fundamental-subordinate-dishonesty/ http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/fundamental-s...). You're "supposed" to be putting all available energy into your job, or at least respect authority enough to put effort into that illusion. Vacation is okay: that's just taking a break. Off-hours work isn't (in typical workplaces).
mixmax 14y ago
Anecdotally I'd say this isn't true. I'm 42, and in the last 5 years I've learned coding, welding and a few other things. When I look around at my friends, many of them have also been learning new things. One of my best friends, who has been doing rockshows and awards his whole life, has started writing a childrens book, and has just come out as transgendered so he's learning a lot about writing, how to do nails, walk in high heels, etc. I might be biased because I'm lucky enough to have unusual, crazy and progressive friends, but I think learning new stuff has less to do with age, and more to do with social factors such as having kids (and thus not a lot of time), or having large monthly expenses due to cars, houses, etc. These things are correlAted of course, but I don't think age per se is a factor.
lutze 14y ago
30 isn't older you cheeky fucker!
- lutze 14y ago
  Wow, I suppose I should articulate this a little better. It's easy to lose perspective when you immerse yourself in a culture that celebrates young successful entrepreneurs so much. The comment referring people in their 30s as "older people" belies a pessimistic and unrealistic outlook that this perspective can sometimes give. Just because you aren't Zuckerberg by the time you're 22 doesn't mean your life is over. Thirty is not old. In fact there's no such thing as old, which I would've thought is something this blog is making plain. There's always something new to learn, always opportunities on the horizon.
  - EliRivers 14y ago
    Not being Zuckerberg is surely a reason to be happy? :)
- jere 14y ago
  Ha. I hope it was obvious it was somewhat of a joke, especially in the context of an article about an 85 year old. Though I also had in mind this Benjamin Franklin quote: "Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five."
  - lutze 14y ago
    You got me. In my defence, that was a textbook case of Poe's Law.
tschill 14y ago
I agree with this as a general statement. The usual trend is that we learn so many new things while growing up. We attend school everyday. We get our degrees, get our jobs, and then we specialize. We are not so much learning any more as honing our already acquired skill set to mastery. There is a difference. Lifelong learning outside of your skill set is much better for your brain and decreases the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's and other age-related cognitive illnesses. So having the mindset to learn something new at 85 is amazing and I hope to always retain that thirst for knowledge. It's good for you!
laumars 14y ago
> "Too often, people seem to give up on learning new stuff at an older age. Usually around 30." Since when has 30 been "an older age"? It's still well within the 1st half of a persons life (assuming average life expectancy), never mind the latter part of the 2nd half. As a 30-something myself, I'm constantly learning new technologies (only this week I started teaching myself Go). I know the computer industry is a very youth-orientated sector. But calling 30 year olds "old timers" is a touch unfair.
cafard 14y ago
At age 30, I dimly remembered some Fortran IV from a freshman class. At 32, I taught myself assembler (a now obsolete one), at 33 went back to school...

jkeesh 14y ago

We are making CodeHS to be as accessible as possible. We've had students of all ages, and it would be great to get feedback from everyone.

alexholehouse 14y ago
FYI, the "Please support our crowdfunding campaign CS in HS." link from that blog post doesn't work. Just a heads up.
- zachgalant 14y ago
  whoah, thanks. should be fixed now.

apathetic 14y ago

but... http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/please-dont-learn-to-code.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/please-dont-learn-t...

mylittlepony 14y ago
I'm free to do whatever I want. I chose to learn informatics for the fat paycheck mostly. So what? I happened to like programming, nowadays I spend a lot of my free time building stuff for no reason, and have fun doing that. But in the end, if I were rich, I'm not sure I would be doing any of this. I would probably be playing ping pong all day long, or travelling around the world, or investing in space exploration, or learning astrophysics.

mtgx 14y ago

10 days left to support CodeHS, by the way: http://www.indiegogo.com/csinhs http://www.indiegogo.com/csinhs

jaequery 14y ago

we need to get this guy on the guiness book of world record for becoming the oldest coder!

JeremyMorgan 14y ago

The idea that your brain turns to mush at 30 is completely ridiculous anyway. Good for him!

padrian2ss 14y ago

Hold your breath grandpa, doing imperative programming is something that you are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

finspin 14y ago

Here is the code he wrote (with help of tutors): http://pastebin.com/93548yF7 http://pastebin.com/93548yF7

Tomis02 14y ago

Should I what? Be 85, or learn to code? I so hate people telling me what I should or shouldn't do without even knowing me.

elomarns 14y ago

Nice story. I believe anyone can learn anything, regardless the age. And I agree with the author, know how to program is a useful knowledge in a world where computers are everywhere. And it also helps to improve the logical thinking. But I'm not among those who think that everybody must to learn programming.

olgeni 14y ago

I tried a few times, even with colors only, and didn't win once... Now I have to stick to it as a matter of principle :)

Spoom 14y ago

The comments on the article itself (not here) make me sad. It almost immediately devolves into a language war. Why is it that some people always have to find something to complain about? I bet a conversation with the author of this article would be very interesting. With the attitude he demonstrated here, he probably has a lot to teach.

endersshadow 14y ago
People have a need to feel superior to other people. I mean, I get it, you're super smart because you're able to critique programming languages. But at the end of the day, this guy was trying to learn a little about coding and did. And that's pretty cool. People have lost their sense of wonder, and it's been replaced with cynicism and egomania. C'est la vie.