Do You Want to Be Doing This When You're 50?

Unequivocally yes! I'm 47 this year and can't imagine a career more fun.

I quit a corporate job to start my own company to be able to spend more time building software. I do note differences between my 20 year old self and my 47 year old self in how I build products.

When I was younger, I was more inclined to fall in love with the tools (languages, OSes, editors, IDEs etc...) These days, I focus on shipping product more than the code and tools themselves. I do spend a lot of time customising my tools, but the objective is to make myself and the team more efficient, not learn everything there is to know about the technology. Although I do spend dedicated time researching specific technology areas. Particularly those that are of competitive interest.

Also, since I control the schedule and the products feature set, I can be more rational about deadlines and calibrate them to outside market pressures. So while the problems that the OP mentions: trawling through vast APIs etc... are definitely things I have to do, I have more control over when and how I do that sort of thing. That makes programming less stressful and a lot more fun.

My coding primarily involves creating the initial prototype to prove a concept, designing the high level architecture of the app and then handing over the APIs for detailed implementation and review to my team. This seems to work well for us.

But as an owner of a small business, I also have to do the other things that 'suits' do: Strategy, marketing, sales, hiring (and sadly firing) and managing. And some things that neither programmers nor managers do: running odd jobs, and making coffee for the team. Fortunately for me, I actually like doing these things (except the odd jobs part), so it doesn't seem like a huge burden.

Having the opportunity to code at 50 is a wonderful thing.

Yeah. Ditto. 49 myself. I enjoy coding as much as I did when I was 20. Do I need to be learning everyday? Yep. Same as back then. And I enjoy it just as much :)

...well I'm 51, and I still like it, so I guess so!

I did, and I still enjoy it at 63. I occasionally find it frustrating, and now and them I'm bemused to find out how much of a day can be spent writing

for thing in thingsource: thingsink.process(thing)

but yes, I want to do it.

59 this year, still doing it. Nothing else I could do would pay as well.

Am! I chose C++ in 1986, and it has just got better and better. C++11 was way more fun than C++98, and C++17 is more fun than C++11. C++20 will be more fun than 17.

I feel sorry for the rest. Coding Java or Javascript would be a chore.

I'm about to turn 60 and I'm still doing it, so.. yes.

47 and building Yazz.com, an open source project, and also working at Red Hat

Hope to be learning still when I’m 50 and will be grateful if I get there