Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikewarot | Hacker News Reader

>I'm considered old here, in my mid 30's

I'm 62, and I'm not old yet, you're just a kid. ;-)

Seriously, there are some folks here who started on punch cards and/or paper tape in the 1960s.

I played with punch cards and polystyrene test samples from the Standard Oil Refinery where my father worked in the early 70’s and my first language after basic was Fortran 77. Not old either.

I grew out of the leaking ether and basaltic dust that coated the plains. My first memories are of the Great Cooling, where the land, known only by its singular cyclopean volcano became devoid of all but the most primitive crystalline forms. I was there, a consciousness woven from residual thermal energy and the pure, unfractured light of the pre-dawn universe. I'm not old either.

30 years ago my coworkers called me Grandpa, so I get it both ways.

Thanks. I meant is more of in a joking way, poking fun at the community. I know I'm far too young to earn a gray beard, but I hope to in the next 20-30 years ;-) I still got a lot to learn till that happens

You wish, that gray beard sometimes appears in your late thirties.

Maybe. But also what I though was a gray beard in my early 20's is very different from what I think a gray beard is now. The number of those I've considered wizards decreased, and I think this should be true for most people. It's harder to differentiate experts as a novice, but as you get closer the resolution increases.

The more I know, the more I know I don’t know.

...and the more I know you don't know. [On the disappearance of wizards as you age]

Both definitely contribute. But at the same time the people who stay wizards (and the people you realize are wizards but didn't previously) only appear to be more magical than ever.

Some magic tricks are unimpressive when you know how they are done. But that's not true for all of them. Some of them only become more and more impressive, only truly being able to be appreciated by other masters. The best magic tricks don't just impress an audience, they impress an audience of magicians.

I think as I gain more experience, what previously looked like magic now always turns out to look a whole lot more like hard work, and frustration with the existing solutions.

Hit me pretty quickly after turning 40 (now 50)... in this last decade I've gone mostly bald and my facial hair is now mostly gray.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com