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My mom was one of those part-time people for 22 years (younger brother), and I'm very proud of her. She got out of college with some basic understanding of comp

My mom was one of those part-time people for 22 years (younger brother), and I'm very proud of her. She got out of college with some basic understanding of computers, but didn't really get much opportunity to become a technie at work. Now, at 53, she is teaching herself Python so that she has a better understanding of the kinds of issues tech people she is interfacing with from the management side encounter so that she can better understand what they're saying and also better prevent poor decisions from higher up from getting to them (like "hey, let's just add <foo> to the site, that should be easy right?"). I don't know how successful she'll be, but she's smart, focused, and organized enough that while it may take a while I'm sure it will make some impact. Point is, 50s and 60s is not too young to learn new skills, including tech skills. Arguably you have better perspective on which tech skills actually matter because of better life skills.

neltnerb 14y ago
I should also say that the 50 and 60 year old hackers I encounter at hacker spaces or in the course of my work are usually some of the most incredibly impressive people I ever encounter. I learned everything I know about analog electronics from a retired electrical engineer -- and I am vastly better at it from an intuitive side than anyone in my age group I've talked to. And I'm not even an EE; I only ever took two courses in the field (introduction, and microcontroller lab). Meanwhile, he's building state-of-the-art electron microscope accelerators and x-ray detectors in his garage. At the same time, he is not a fan of programming, and happily finds 20 somethings to deal with that stuff for him. Moral of that story -- do what you've spent your life developing the skills to do, and extend from there instead of trying to start from scratch. It's hard to start over at 60 or 70. It's not nearly as hard to push forward from where you are.
- kanzure 14y ago
  I would like to meet this person. We need more people building electron microscopes in their garages. Could you hook me up?

neltnerb 14y ago

I should also say that the 50 and 60 year old hackers I encounter at hacker spaces or in the course of my work are usually some of the most incredibly impressive people I ever encounter. I learned everything I know about analog electronics from a retired electrical engineer -- and I am vastly better at it from an intuitive side than anyone in my age group I've talked to. And I'm not even an EE; I only ever took two courses in the field (introduction, and microcontroller lab). Meanwhile, he's building state-of-the-art electron microscope accelerators and x-ray detectors in his garage. At the same time, he is not a fan of programming, and happily finds 20 somethings to deal with that stuff for him. Moral of that story -- do what you've spent your life developing the skills to do, and extend from there instead of trying to start from scratch. It's hard to start over at 60 or 70. It's not nearly as hard to push forward from where you are.

kanzure 14y ago
I would like to meet this person. We need more people building electron microscopes in their garages. Could you hook me up?