Hacker News Reader

Comment by smoyer | Hacker News Reader

Apparently old is a matter of perspective ... To me not quite 40 is still a young'in.

I'm over fifty and just got back from presenting at a major conference. I've managed to say current through 35 years of embedded systems design (hardware and software) as well as a stretch of software-only business. It's really not that hard if you understand your job is to continually be learning. I must be doing it right because often those I'm teaching are half my age.

As an aside, I've done the management track and moved back to the technical track when I found it unfulfilling.

View on HN

People over 30 feel 'old' every 10 years. That's nothing new; it's not even 'programmers are 20something'; people becoming 30-40-50-60 have all been saying 'now I am old' while we stand to become 90-100 (at least in western EU), so 60 is not that old. 40 (i'm 41) is spring chicken and I look forward to many years telling my younger colleagues that the latest thing, however interesting to learn about, is not always better.

I never said that I was old ... One good sign is that my wife keeps telling me to act my age!

Nobody has any experience of being any older than they currently are, but a lifetime's memory of being younger. Hence most people of all ages feel old.

One trick I like to play on myself is to imagine I come back from twenty years in the future. What advice would I give myself? First thing would have to be "shut up about being old! Your life is still ahead of you."

I like the other trick too, where I imagine being visited by a teenage me and thinking what he would say about where I'm at. It can be an awkward conversation. Where's the Ferrari?

As a less whacky version, pay really good attention to your parents and your kids.

I use that timetravel trick as well; I never thought I was old (I like getting older so far; so many doors just open that were closed before), but yeah things to tell your younger self; do not hurry so much. Make 10 year+ plans when doing things. I always hurried thinking something would end; I have been running companies since I was 15 and, for instance, the first company I co-ran with my uncle, made educational software for MS-DOS and later Windows 3.11 and then Win95 etcetc. I was in hurry because I thought first MS-DOS would go away and then that Windows apps would go away because web. The software I made then sells well still; it's now over 25 years old... Why did I hurry/worry?

Things I thought that would end, like the CMS market 16 years ago (a market my company thrived in) didn't end. They became bigger. If I would've not hurried, I would have less stress at the time and probably be running on a larger scale than that company is doing now. You cannot stand still and for some parts there needs to be a sense of urgency but it doesn't change that much in most markets. Currently I use that to tell my colleagues we need a 10-year plan, not just a 3-5 year plan.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com