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Comment by tzakrajs | Hacker News Reader

Imagine you are part of the next wave and keep your willingness to try new things. I have met many folks over 40 that are far more savvy than their younger contemporaries in terms of exposure to what is new and being paid well.

Edit: terrible word usage in last sentence

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An interesting exception to your point, which are very valid. I've seen some guys do very well in their later years when they understand older systems/languages that youngsters don't learn. With companies tied into some legacy systems these guys know their rarity and make the company pay appropriately for this. That said they live on the chopping block waiting for the inevitable upgrade.

you're right. But the problem with 30's developer is lack of opportunity to learn. Ok, for the current job, you know very well about system, architect. But you know, we're focusing to much about the current technique, the current system, and we limit ourself in learning new thing, and our learning curse is much slower than younger developers also.

Can you help this by choosing company role/size? I'm marketing side and I tend to enjoy mid-size companies as you'll get pulled into a bunch of side roles as they don't have someone for everything. It keeps the skill set broad and learning new things. Also I moonlight for some smaller companies that have flexible time expectations. I enjoy this work so find it interesting seeing different businesses plus keeps my more junior role skill-set alive and in touch with changing tech now I'm more senior on the corporate level. Does that translate into developer life options?

Thanks for your answer. I am thinking about this. I just wonder like beside your career, we still consider about family, house... If we want to move around the side role, how can we move to the next step of our career. Or you think we don't need to think about going to next level, but explore the skills set is more valuable?

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