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Comment by orionblastar | Hacker News Reader

I am 52, I started in BASIC programming in 1979. I am currently disabled and unable to work. I am trying to get better so I can become healthier and get back to work.

Programming became a lot easier when Visual BASIC and Delphi came out. Just drag and drop controls.

Due to ageism I am sure I don't fit the culture of a startup or relate to 20 somethings. They hire them young anyway not old. So I do tech support for family and friends to get by.

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>Due to ageism I am sure I don't fit the culture of a startup or relate to 20 somethings.

Whatever you believe, your brain, like a sentry, will find confirmation for. Be careful with that.

And can slightly change how one does and says things, which others can notice, -- to some small extent, can become a self fulfilling prophecy.

(And this can work on in a good way too -- if you say to yourself maybe: I like these people, I like most people, what matters is not age, but if the others are curious and want to learn new things)

Now, of course I do believe that ageism is a thing, still, I'd think there're somewhat many good workplaces that aren't much affected by it

I'll keep that in mind. Hope it doesn't end up like The Interns movie.

While there is a degree of ageism in the industry - avoid companies that advertise their ethos as "work hard and play hard" because having to do most of your office politics half-drunk in the bars after work is not much fun - there are also a lot of people in the industry who genuinely care more about a person's ability to learn and adapt than the date on a birth certificate. Believe in your abilities. Wishing you good health for the future!

Thank you, I learned 27 different languages since 1979, most are so old that there are no jobs for them anymore. I used to be a master at Visual BASIC until Dotnet came out.

I can learn any language on the market if I wanted to. I am a quick learner as I have the theories of computer science in my head as I learn.

What are your 4? favorite languages? (Among those 27 :-))

BASIC, C, Ada, COBOL.

Ok. I like Ada a bit, we studied at University, incl for a hard real time simulation problem :-) Never did any COBOL

Have a nice weekend tomorrow

My first "paid" gig was winning £50 for submitting a game written in AMOS Basic to an Amiga computer magazine, which got picked as the magazine's "Game of the month". It's still an achievement I'm really proud about.

I’m 53 and started FORTRAN programming in 1975ish on the VAX at my moms work. Bought an Ohio Scientific C2-8P a year or two later with my brother, and that’s when I got into programming games and really started to learn (BASIC) fast foreword 44 years or so, and I’m working in solidity writing contract code in a blockchain startup with a bunch of early 20s guys. They call me dad and are always asking advice on architecture and data structure problems Just closed our first round.

Work on projects, not at jobs...that’s my advice.

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