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Comment by ajross | Hacker News Reader

Nor should we live in fear. I'm 41, and still doing quite well (as measured in both happiness and dollars) coding every day in a comparatively senior position. I don't expect that to change any time soon, though obviously I recognize that it can.

Do what you love. If you're good at it and willing to compromise reasonably, then the market will accept you. If you're not good at it you will have trouble sustaining a career for the simple reason that "junior" hires are made with the hope that the employee will improve; that prospect seems much dimmer for middle-aged candidates.

And the willingness to compromise is important too. If you are focused on a very narrow field, you may find it dissolve due to technological progress and market conditions. If you are focused on progression inside a single large employer, you may find its culture doesn't want senior hackers. Be broad, be flexible.

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Screw "do what you love", and instead "do what you're good at, and become better at it". The enjoyment goes with that, and you get actually paid a decent wage.

(To put it flippantly: I live in L.A. People who "do what they love" without being good at it are the ones who bring food to my table. I don't mean that in a derogatory way - I just wish they took their actual talents and ran with them.)

I hear you. Daniel Pink talks about this in his book Drive. Basically, when it comes to finding a wonderful career, mastery is a big deal. It's not the only factor you need to consider, but it's an important one. There are a lot of happy accountants out there because they consider themselves "masters" of their chosen craft. It's not sexy or dangerous, but they've found meaning in it by becoming skilled at it.

Again, there are other factors in play, but mastery is definitely important. I love running, I run everyday, but I'll never be a professional runner because I lack the skill and determination required to be a master runner. I don't even know if I'll ever be a master at anything, but I do know there are areas where I have a decent shot at it, so I know where to spend my precious time.

I'd say the best thing to master is solving problems.

In the case of developers it may mean that you never become a master at programming, but what's more important: solving a problem or having elegant, well documented non-solutions?

Hackers make things work, and I think that's more important than being a "master" - I don't even like the word master, it almost feels egotistical.

Hackers (by my own definition) make this thing here work now.

A master of his art has the time to design not just his solution, but the task itself, and the experience to understand all the implications of a given solution.

Fair enough. That's sort of what I meant by "be willing to compromise". From my perspective it's so rare to find people who are truly "good at" something they don't enjoy that I'm not really sure I find the distinction meaningful.

It's meaningful when you _start_ a career, I think. I've seen to many 20-year olds following this advice all starry-eyed, without any idea how to ever actually make "what they love" into a lifetime of meaningful and useful work.

And the issue is not finding people who don't enjoy what they're good at. I agreed that that might be quite rare. (Although there are definitely moments in every career where you hate what you do. It's inevitable)

It's that people abandon something they do enjoy, because it is not what they think they love. It's easy to love from afar, when you have only a passing knowledge. The hard work is keeping the love alive once you get intimate knowledge, in relationships as well as in jobs. So if you start with something you do well, you start with something you already know intimately. It's much easier to keep that working for you than building a new relationship, so to speak.

Or do what you love despite the financial consequences.

Some people will happily choose to wait tables in order to do what they love. Ain't freedom grand?

Fortunately it's a choice most of us get to make. If you're good at something, but hate doing it, you can still do it for the money. If you suck at something, and love doing it, you can do it anyway and suffer financially (and perhaps get better at it and then make money). It's a question of priorities.

I know people who don't particularly enjoy what they do, despite being good enough at it to be in the six-figure bracket. They enjoy the six-figure lifestyle and tolerate their work, rather than doing work they love and living a poorer lifestyle. Swings and roundabouts - do what brings the most happiness overall to your life.

Can I ask (as a 41 year old myself) are you freelancing or employee?

I'm a salaried employee. I do "systems" work currently (basically integration and middleware plumbing on embedded systems), which is an area for which there isn't a lot of freelance opportunity. But I've worked in other areas professionally and expect to work in other areas in the future. I certainly wouldn't rule out freelancing.

Well if you do please give me a call - I am thinking of going down the 10xmgmt route

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