[lorenzq]

If that older Unix or C++ programmer doesn't have a strong bias against Javascript, functional programming, new es6/es7 concepts, and web appliactions in general, then sure. I see many of these types of people even on HN with biases though.

Age shouldn't be used as a catch all filter, but I can see how it might be faster to screen those who have been too content to stick to their tools without catching up to industry trends.

[phkahler]

>> If that older Unix or C++ programmer doesn't have a strong bias against Javascript, functional programming, new es6/es7 concepts, and web appliactions in general, then sure. I see many of these types of people even on HN with biases though.

You might want to check your own bias in favor of functional programming. To the more seasoned programmers this is just the latest fad. That's not to say there isn't value in it, but if you're making hiring decisions around it you've probably got your head in the clouds.

[racer-v]

The most seasoned programmers have been using functional programming since the 60's.

[racer-v]

I presume you wouldn't hire someone who expresses a strong distaste for your software stack, regardless of age (unless their job is specifically to replace it).

[com2kid]

> I presume you wouldn't hire someone who expresses a strong distaste for your software stack, regardless of age (unless their job is specifically to replace it).

I'm not sure if I'd want to hire someone who is unable to point out valid criticisms of the technology stack I'm using.

People need to be aware of the limitations of their tools. I spent years in pure C, both complaining about it and singing its praises. Right now I'm in JS land, and I can do the same thing.

I started off in C#. No real complaints there, except for the lack of stack alloc, and that got added in the most recent version. :-D

[mrisoli]

> I'm not sure if I'd want to hire someone who is unable to point out valid criticisms of the technology stack I'm using.

I only interviewed a few of candidates for developer roles a couple of times and this was one of the questions I asked, managed to get some interesting, constructive responses as well as some well-crafted bullshit.

[toomanybeersies]

From experience, companies won't hire you if you express a strong distaste for their software stack.

I learned this after I told the interviewer that I thought that PHP was a crap language, when interviewing for a PHP developer position.

[hrktb]

Honestly that doesn’t seem a bad decision. You will be eating PHP day in day out. It would be a bad choice for the company if they had candidates who otherwise don’t care that much about PHP’s problems, and a disservice to you if you could otherwise find equivalent jobs in a language you like better.

Working in a PHP shop, nobody would care to shit on PHP during an interview. We know the shortcommings, it just doesn’t really matter that much.

[toomanybeersies]

I'm definitely not criticising them for their decision. I honestly probably wouldn't've liked working with PHP all day long, especially since the job would've been working with quite a lot of legacy code.

[tracker1]

I tend to feel the same wrt Java, not so much the language, but the tooling around the language feels like such a pain. I always hated PHP. I've worked with them both though.

I happen to like the one language to rule them all (JS).

[vitno]

I was once hired for a C++ position _because_ I hated on C++ during the interview.

[aurelianito]

I think that c++ is an horrendous collection of disgusting hacks. I also work as a c++ developer. If I were hiring for a c++ Dev role I wouldn't hire someone who cannot point out several problems with c++, as the main difficulty of the job is to avoid those tar pits.

[user5994461]

C++ is the exception. You can't be senior without despising all the intricacies of the language.

[icelancer]

Linus Torvalds is perhaps the perfect depiction of this.

[jmalicki]

Linus Torvalds doesn't program in C++ at all, only C.

[icelancer]

That's the joke, yes.

[peralmq]

Feel like I have to share this hilarious fake interview with Stroustroup (creator of C++) here http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/Invention_of_Cplusplus.shtml

[sidlls]

And such a person shouldn't be hired. I wouldn't hire me to work on a JavaScript stack. It's not because I don't or couldn't understand it in short order, and very much better than many (most, possibly all) of the 20-something hipsters they're using to fart out garbage. It's because I have strong biases against it and the kind of development style it attracts, some of which (as illustrated in this very comment) aren't really empirically or otherwise similarly justifiable.

They're just biases that haven't a good justification. I usually keep this sort of bias to myself because I recognize it for what it is. Honestly though I wouldn't apply for such positions, either, so the bias problem never surfaces.

[lurr]

> very much better than many (most, possibly all) of the 20-something hipsters they're using to fart out garbage.

how is this type of attitude not sufficient reason to not bother hiring someone? I immediately don't want to work with or for you.

[sidlls]

From my comment: "I wouldn't hire me to work on a JavaScript stack.... They're just biases that haven't a good justification."

I know this. And I wouldn't want to work with JS devs. At all. It's a win-win for all of us that I don't apply to those positions.

[lurr]

I wouldn't want to work with you on anything, as I strongly suspect your attitude extends well beyond javascript.

[emodendroket]

You think having preferences, and being aware of them, and avoiding environments not in line with them, makes him a bad prospective co-worker?

[tracker1]

I've been building web applications for over two decades... I love most of the newer tooling over anything I had even a decade ago. Though I do prefer React+* over Angular. I've kept up, some things I love, somethings I frankly use sparingly... that said, I'm definitely biased.

I'm more likely to ride on the bleeding edge (Node 8, Webpack 3, Babel 7) than most. I am afraid though, in under a decade it will be an uphill battle to find work (I'm 43 at the end of the month).

[sheeshkebab]

There is only so far you can go competing with teenagers in node/js space - pick a different tech stack for the future.

[ilaksh]

I'm 40 and also a JS developer for many years after using C++ and other stacks before that. From what I can tell Node.js and JavaScript stopped being cool for many young people like a few years ago when they got onto Go and other stuff.

Maybe the trend is web assembly with Rust now or something. Or Ethereum contracts and R are cool. I dunno but trends do matter.

Anyway JavaScript is less trendy but still very popular and there are a ton of crap codebases built up over recent years. So any of those that don't get scrapped for a trendier technology will be looking to recruit experienced people to fix up their crap (maybe adding TS declarations for everything or something like that).

[brlewis]

On the contrary, there is only so far younger people can go competing in the node/js space with people who have gone through SICP. Higher order functions are everywhere.

[megaman22]

When JS stops reimplementing Unix tools or stuff from the Bell ATT labs from before you were born, I'd start getting worried. The fundamentals are important, when you get into anything more complex than slapping crud apps together. Witness the monstrosities birthed by JS "programmers" that have never slung pointers, or been acquainted with tree operations, or think MVC was birthed with Web 2.0.

[tracker1]

LOL... of course you can build crap in any platform/language. On the flip side, look at what Walmart and Netflix have accomplished with JS, which is a far cry from the monstrosities bemoaned. It's not all simple, because it's a relatively easy and flexible language to start with.

[emodendroket]

People who are early in their careers can be quite dogmatic too.

[zbentley]

I think graphing dogmatism over age is an inverse bell curve on average, with a lot of point variation.

[lmm]

It's possible but it's a lot less common IME.

[probablybroken]

My observation is that earlier on in people's careers they tend to be more certain about the limited experiences they have had due to a lack of contradiction.. Of course, if you keep repeating the same limited experiences this will only be reinforced ;)

[lmm]

My experience is that fresh grads are aware they lack experience and are appropriately modest in their judgements of technologies, whereas people with ten years of experience are dogmatically confident that certain technologies are good or bad.

[emodendroket]

I've found that sometimes people have done one thing their entire careers and, therefore, think that's the only solution to everything. And I think that's more likely when your entire career is a couple years long.