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The premise of the article is flawed - it's not about where the old programmers have gone, but whether they were there to begin with. If you think a bit about

by mixmax 13y ago

The premise of the article is flawed - it's not about where the old programmers have gone, but whether they were there to begin with. If you think a bit about it it's fairly obvious. Programming is a relatively new profession that has been booming for the last decade or two. 30 years ago when a 45 year old programmer would have thought about what to do with his life programming would only be an option for the few. Theresimply weren't that many people that chose a profession as programmers, so naturally there aren't that many old programmers around since there weren't that ,any to begin with.

drorweiss 13y ago
Exactly, almost same wording as my comment
- mixmax 13y ago
  Yes, sorry about the redundancy - the downside of having lots of tabs open for a while is that you don't see all the new comments. But you know what they say - great minds think alike :-)
  - drorweiss 13y ago
    Actually, you were first :)
bryanlarsen 13y ago
The Apple II. TRS-80 & Commodore PET were all released 36 years ago. Those three machines marked the wide availability of computing. 30 years ago you could buy a computer for $200, and millions did. The early 80's were filled with heady optimism. It was obvious that computers were the future; that they were the next "plastics". So while it's not surprising that there aren't lots of 55-60 year old programmers, there should be lots of 40-50 year old ones. I think a better explanation for their lack would be the downturns experienced in the early 90s and the big internet crash of ~2002. A lot of people shifted into different fields in that time. Even more so is just attrition. It takes a lot of effort to stay current; for many it would have been just easier to switch into management.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  There was a serious crash in the late 80s of too many programmers and not enough programming jobs. So the number of people studying CS dropped and didn't start picking up until the mid 90s.
  - raverbashing 13y ago
    But how much was "too many" I believe the current lack of programmers and number of openings is bigger than the values around that time

by mixmax 13y ago

drorweiss 13y ago

Exactly, almost same wording as my comment

mixmax 13y ago
Yes, sorry about the redundancy - the downside of having lots of tabs open for a while is that you don't see all the new comments. But you know what they say - great minds think alike :-)
- drorweiss 13y ago
  Actually, you were first :)

bryanlarsen 13y ago

The Apple II. TRS-80 & Commodore PET were all released 36 years ago. Those three machines marked the wide availability of computing. 30 years ago you could buy a computer for $200, and millions did. The early 80's were filled with heady optimism. It was obvious that computers were the future; that they were the next "plastics". So while it's not surprising that there aren't lots of 55-60 year old programmers, there should be lots of 40-50 year old ones. I think a better explanation for their lack would be the downturns experienced in the early 90s and the big internet crash of ~2002. A lot of people shifted into different fields in that time. Even more so is just attrition. It takes a lot of effort to stay current; for many it would have been just easier to switch into management.

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
There was a serious crash in the late 80s of too many programmers and not enough programming jobs. So the number of people studying CS dropped and didn't start picking up until the mid 90s.
- raverbashing 13y ago
  But how much was "too many" I believe the current lack of programmers and number of openings is bigger than the values around that time