bitsnbytes

I have lived in SWFL and Central florida most my life and have never been to Cape Coral. Anytime you mention cape coral in Naples peoples eyes light up in fear, like its some horrific place. The news in Naples is pretty suppress and the only thing you ear bad that occurs come from Fort Myers or Cape coral.

However, I have been fighting the temptation to purchase a decent sized house on their on the water. The same house in Naples would easily go for several hundred thousands more. We have some friends that live their and they swear its not as bad as people say? One of these days I need to make it out there.

I live just a little south of you in Naples and I completely agree with you. These HOA nazi have nothing but time and money to harass the younger families. I don't live in a terrorist HOA community zone any longer because its a nightmare in SWFL.

However, when I visit friends in HOA community its usually the same feeling unless you are over 60. They will give you a citation or stick these very hard guerrilla stickers on your vehicle or property for the dumbest things.Such as not having your garbage can properly aligned , your garage door was open for to long, visitors stayed to long in the visitor parking,etc.

They are typically old, cranky , miserable , and rude.

Once you calm back down after the old geezers charge you like you just committed a felony for leaving your garage door open while you put the grocery away , it becomes hard to not feel bad for their horrible miserable existence.

Seriously review your bylaws and don't dismiss any of them no matter how stupid,outdated, or insignificant they sound in SWFL. They will not only harass you for the little things, they look forward to it in their boring life.

Any time they can bring out the tape measure to see if your garbage can is within the acceptable distance from the street they will.

I have lived in HOA communities in central Florida and it wasn't an issue. However, down here in geezer ville its their passion to harass you.

"I agree. My experience has been that ageist views (just like sexism, racism, homophobia, etc) are more often expressed by people of previous generations and that millennials are actually more flexible and open to the idea that they would work with someone older (or of another gender, different skin colour, etc)."

I think millennials are far more open when it comes to sexism, racism, homophobia, etc by far. However, when it comes to ageism not so much.

Agreed and I didn't mean to suggest your time is any less valuable , its at that age you have more freedom to decide what is a priority when it comes to optional time allocation and flexibility to shuffle the time.

BTW companies especially the big ones will push you as far as your demographics or industry will allow them too. Their priority is too push the "what is acceptable line" furthest as possible to save that dollar. The smart ones know better of the consequences, but most are too focused on the quick savings.

BTW when I stayed late or worked for free it was never for the benefit of the company. It was always for my benefit as I was never under the illusion that any company considered me more important than their bottom line. I viewed giving away my free time as an investment on my part to get experience in something that benefited me in the end.

"I am 23 (started working in programming at 22) and this view confuses me. I don't want to sound rude but... you didn't have hobbies? Friends? Partner? Errands to run? Non-work programming projects? Even when I was single and lived alone, I had plenty of reasons to leave after 8 hours."

When I was 23 I had a very active fun social life as you appear to have as well. BTW I had the same opinions as you at that age as well.

The difference is most of those activities are at your discretion and OPTIONAL and you have enormous amount of 'myself' time available . When you have kids and a family your OPTIONAL activities diminish and your 'myself' time is non existent, due to REQUIRED commitments.

In addition staying up to 3am or 4am or all night sometimes was common for me at that age.

After having a kid and family you can still do that. The issue is your kid doesn't give a F that you stayed up till 3am to fix something and you have to take care off all your REQUIRED responsibilities throughout the day. After a while it takes it toll on you.

"Older developers of HN, what are your experiences?"

I'm 43.

When I was younger and first started out 20+ years ago I put in easily 50-60+ hour work weeks ,but only billed the client for 40.

I was young , hungry to learn, and loved the feeling I got when I accomplished a project or tackled something new and complicated. It was self rewarding. It was not a job or even a career , it was a feeling that wow somebody is actually paying me to do something I fully enjoy.

At 43 the only thing that has Changed is my ability to put in that extra time.

I was married young and in college as well, but with no Child. At 35 we had our first child and my father had a stroke not too far after that.

My responsibilities at home raising my Son and taking care of my older parents has consumed most of my free time.

While it has not impacted my area of expertise, It has impacted my ability to stay up to date with all the latest and greatest technologies.

Even when I was younger I always had a "learn as a needed" mentality and was able to quickly adapt. That hasn't changed nor my desire to learn new things.

However, what has changed is that I have become selective on which technology "I need to learn". I also can't afford the risk to take a pay cut to jump on a new cool technology when I'm making good money , in my current industry.

Having said that now I fantasize about retirement , but not to retire. I fantasize about that extra time and financial freedom to work and learn on the FUN projects I want.

I have always wanted to get into the robotics industry to improve the quality of life for elderly people and children. I love the software and hardware intermingling and actually seeing the physical result, versus just software virtual results on the screen.

Its something I fantasize enough about , that now I'm looking to purchase a new home with the space to build my lab (mwahahaha).

In regards to ageism, Yes , I have seen it and would say its far more prevalent then the other 'ism' in the tech world.

Luckily for me I don't really look like my age and can still pass for my 30's and have worked with the same clients for 20+ years, even after switching companies.

However on paper its another thing, and something I definitely worry about if I have to change jobs or clients.