Life Lessons at 40 | Hacker News Reader

Life Lessons at 40

versiononeventures.com

24 pointsakingyens5 comments

I have some questions for older posters (me - approaching 30):

1. There is always a new wave in tech. Currently, it's datascience, and previously it was web applications. Is it important to skill up and ride these, or can you keep going as e.g. an applications programmer during the web wave?

2. Does 30 look as young and naive at 40 as 20 looks at 30? If so, what didn't you know at 30?

3. You probably earn more at 40 than you did at 30. Broadly, what changed that made you more valuable?

1) Not sure I can answer that properly, but a the more things change the more they stay the same. 2) For me, 40 seems like 30 + 10 years of experience. 3) Soft skills - dealing with people, selling my skills and networking. Also, not having to feel desperate - if someone underpays, I leave.

1. Computer tech seems to move in a ~20 year cycle, so after that amount of time you will have "seen it all" to a certain extent, and you can apply your early experience to the new wave of technologies. For example, centralized mainframes -> personal desktops -> centralized web servers -> personal portable devices.

2. At 20 I was an arrogant know-it-all, 30 I had solid experience in certain things, by 40 the experience broadens and you find you can take a higher level view of things.

3. A 30yo offers knowledge of a certain specific technology (what to build). A 40yo offers experience (especially what NOT to build), which makes them more valuable.

Inre #6 ("Spend your money on experiences, not stuff"): personally I have really bad memory... so I'd rather spend my money on stuff so that I remember it. Experiences I enjoy, and then as the years pass I remember them less and less.

While I have plenty to learn, I feel extremely fortunate to have internalized much of this at a young age. Being able to understand what's important in life makes decisions (both big and small) so much easier to make.

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