I remember John Carmack talking about this last year. Seems like it's still pretty good advice more than a year later:
"From a DM, just in case anyone else needs to hear this."
"From a DM, just in case anyone else needs to hear this."
Young people can learn and fight for their place in the workforce, but what is left for older people like myself? I'm in this industry already, I might have missed the train of "learn to talk with people" and been sold on the "coding is a means to an end" koolaid.
My employability is already damaged due to my age and experience. What is left for people like myself? How can I compete with a 20 something years old who has sharper memory, more free time (due to lack of obligations like family/relationships), who got the right advice from Carmack in the beginning of his career?
But you have made all those mistakes already. You've learned, you've earned your experience. You are much more valuable than you think.
Source: Me, I'm almost 60, been programming since I was 12.
It was true 100 years ago, it was true 20 years ago, and it is true now.
I think that what he means is that how successful we are in work is closely related to our contributions, or to the perceived "value" we bring to other people.
The current gen AI isn't the end of programmers. What matters is still what people want and are willing to pay for and how can we contribute to fulfill that need.
You are right that young folks have the time and energy to work more than older ones and for less money. And they can soak up knowledge like a sponge. That's their strong point and older folks cannot really compete with that.
You (and everyone else) have to find your own strong point, your "niche" so to speak. We're all different, so I'm pretty sure that what you like and are good at is not what I like and I'm good at and vice-versa.
All the greats, like Steve Jobs and so on said that you've got to love what you do. Follow your intuition. That may even be something that you dreamed about in your childhood. Anything that you really want to do and makes you feel fulfilled.
I don't think you can get to any good place while disliking what you do for a living.
That said, all this advice can seem daunting and unfeasible when you're not in a good place in life. But worrying only makes it worse.
If you can see yourself in a better light and as having something valuable to contribute, things would start looking better.
This is solvable. Have faith!
This is probably true for them but the other thing that can happen is that when you take what you love and do it for work or try to make it a business you can grow to hate it.
Is it a USA/Silicon Valley thing to miss the arrogance and insufferability most fresh grads have when entering the workforce?
It's kind of tone-deaf to attempt to self-victimize as someone with significant work experience being concerned of being replaced by a demographic that is notoriously challenged to build experience.
Ultima Underword was technologically superior to Wolfenstein 3D.
System Shock was technologically superior to Doom and a much better game for my taste. I also think it has aged better.
Doom, Wolf 3D and Quake were less sophisticated, but kicked ass. They captured the spirit of the times and people loved it.
They're still pretty good games too, 30 years later.