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Owen said: It’s a bit of a myth that it’s all young coders. There actually lots of people in their late 30s and their 40s. I’ve been a programmer for 25 years a

Owen said: It’s a bit of a myth that it’s all young coders. There actually lots of people in their late 30s and their 40s. I’ve been a programmer for 25 years and I’ve actually worked hard to keep up with new technology. That's quite encouraging. Sometimes I think one could be forgiven for getting the impression that if you're over 25 and you haven't made it in start-up land, then you may as well quit.

ojbyrne 17y ago
As I believe I said in the interview, the second developer we hired at digg was older than me (I was 45 at the time we hired him).
- kubrick 17y ago
  I'm 45 and spend all of my time (currently) consulting with startups. At one, the average age is maybe 28. At another, at probably about 48 (no kidding). At yet another, probably 40.
- edwardog 17y ago
  I was really happy to hear you say that when we met at your TravelPod presentation; I wish there was more focus on older hackers – sure gives me something to look forward to. -Edward from Shopify (around the corner from you guys)
joshu 17y ago
I was 31 when I started Delicious as a company. That probably rounds down to 25 though.
- nailer 17y ago
  If your were giving your age in octal, it's the same thing. :-)
eugenejen 17y ago
The only thing for youth is the tolerance for risk can be higher than 40 yrs old for most engineers. But as long as engineers keep up skills. Their experience are very valuable. It was the same when I worked in PubSub then. CTO Bob Wyman hired a bunch of 40 something engineers and they really can do cool engineering than 20 something. -- edit -- Engineers in PubSub then are at least 30 yrs old in 2005. The youngest engineer is very talented but he started to write programs in forth when he was 10 on Apple II. Of course the draw back is the salary is higher and old engineers may have too much distractions from their children. I think most of time, the myth for young engineers is to encourage students to join the rank. And the engineers in first world face big competition from countries with lower salary. But I always feel funny because for people working in software, US is the original birth place and the most experience engineers are here. But people probably would rather to pay an expensive old doctor to heal them than an old engineer to build something that works because they don't feel the value for what they pay in perceivable fashion. -- edit -- And thanks for Owen to dispel myth from PR.
- jonny_noog 17y ago
  ... as long as engineers keep up skills ... This is a good point that probably seems so obvious to most people here, but none the less is overlooked by many elsewhere. Where I work my day job now, I can see a clear delineation between those that left their "official" studying years with the conscious or unconscious idea that they really no longer had to learn anything new, and those who know that especially in our industry, you must actively and continuously put time into developing your skills and knowledge. The sad thing is that in many if not all big organisations (particularly government), you can be the first kind of person and go through the motions each day just fine. They don't even get called on it most of the time. I know which kind of person I get along with better and which shits me to tears when I have to deal with them.
abstractbill 17y ago
My friend and mentor did his startup (truveo.com) when he was 40, with a wife and two kids to support. His company was acquired by AOL for about $50 million. So yes, the myth that you have to be in your 20s to succeed in this game is exactly that.
10ren 17y ago
ADOBE: founded 1982 by John Warnock (born 1940) and Charles Geschke (born 1939) - that's about 42 and 43 years old. I believe they both had young families too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Systems However... they were working at Xerox's PARC.

ojbyrne 17y ago

As I believe I said in the interview, the second developer we hired at digg was older than me (I was 45 at the time we hired him).

kubrick 17y ago
I'm 45 and spend all of my time (currently) consulting with startups. At one, the average age is maybe 28. At another, at probably about 48 (no kidding). At yet another, probably 40.
edwardog 17y ago
I was really happy to hear you say that when we met at your TravelPod presentation; I wish there was more focus on older hackers – sure gives me something to look forward to. -Edward from Shopify (around the corner from you guys)

joshu 17y ago

I was 31 when I started Delicious as a company. That probably rounds down to 25 though.

nailer 17y ago
If your were giving your age in octal, it's the same thing. :-)

eugenejen 17y ago

The only thing for youth is the tolerance for risk can be higher than 40 yrs old for most engineers. But as long as engineers keep up skills. Their experience are very valuable. It was the same when I worked in PubSub then. CTO Bob Wyman hired a bunch of 40 something engineers and they really can do cool engineering than 20 something. -- edit -- Engineers in PubSub then are at least 30 yrs old in 2005. The youngest engineer is very talented but he started to write programs in forth when he was 10 on Apple II. Of course the draw back is the salary is higher and old engineers may have too much distractions from their children. I think most of time, the myth for young engineers is to encourage students to join the rank. And the engineers in first world face big competition from countries with lower salary. But I always feel funny because for people working in software, US is the original birth place and the most experience engineers are here. But people probably would rather to pay an expensive old doctor to heal them than an old engineer to build something that works because they don't feel the value for what they pay in perceivable fashion. -- edit -- And thanks for Owen to dispel myth from PR.

jonny_noog 17y ago
... as long as engineers keep up skills ... This is a good point that probably seems so obvious to most people here, but none the less is overlooked by many elsewhere. Where I work my day job now, I can see a clear delineation between those that left their "official" studying years with the conscious or unconscious idea that they really no longer had to learn anything new, and those who know that especially in our industry, you must actively and continuously put time into developing your skills and knowledge. The sad thing is that in many if not all big organisations (particularly government), you can be the first kind of person and go through the motions each day just fine. They don't even get called on it most of the time. I know which kind of person I get along with better and which shits me to tears when I have to deal with them.

abstractbill 17y ago

My friend and mentor did his startup (truveo.com) when he was 40, with a wife and two kids to support. His company was acquired by AOL for about $50 million. So yes, the myth that you have to be in your 20s to succeed in this game is exactly that.

10ren 17y ago

ADOBE: founded 1982 by John Warnock (born 1940) and Charles Geschke (born 1939) - that's about 42 and 43 years old. I believe they both had young families too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Systems However... they were working at Xerox's PARC.