[herodoturtle]

> As someone who first started programming in 1979

I absolutely love that there are seasoned experts like you on HN.

Would you mind sharing with us what you're working on these days?

Compared to you I'm relatively young (I've been programming around 26 years) and in my circles I don't get to mix with too many older programmers.

Would love to hear your thoughts on career trajectories.

For me personally, I'm gradually spending less time on pursuing commercial interests, and more time on pro bono projects - and I love the idea of working on open source software indefinitely once I retire.

Cheers from South Africa.

[datavirtue]

Same here, 31 years. I'm 43 and started in around 1989-1990 at age 12. I didn't know anyone who had ever even attempted to program a computer, so I was completely on my own. I have a good grasp now but remain humbled by the craft (coding every day). Nearly everyone I know now is either where I was twenty years ago or insanely elitist. Still on my own.

I have many authors to thank.

[eitland]

Another relatively young programmer here: born in 80 started but started programming somewhere between 92 and 94 on Commodore 64.

I've been extremely lucky to mostly have worked with mostly ordinary programmers with some extremely good[1] thrown in and luckily even with the brilliant ones all except two of them were also down to earth and nice as well.

[1]: "master of all trades", all-knowing teacher types with "saintly" patience, learns-anything-in-two-hours-and-proceeds-to-fix-hard-bugs-after-lunch

[orionblastar]

I am 52, I started in BASIC programming in 1979. I am currently disabled and unable to work. I am trying to get better so I can become healthier and get back to work.

Programming became a lot easier when Visual BASIC and Delphi came out. Just drag and drop controls.

Due to ageism I am sure I don't fit the culture of a startup or relate to 20 somethings. They hire them young anyway not old. So I do tech support for family and friends to get by.

[hedberg10]

>Due to ageism I am sure I don't fit the culture of a startup or relate to 20 somethings.

Whatever you believe, your brain, like a sentry, will find confirmation for. Be careful with that.

[cutemonster]

And can slightly change how one does and says things, which others can notice, -- to some small extent, can become a self fulfilling prophecy.

(And this can work on in a good way too -- if you say to yourself maybe: I like these people, I like most people, what matters is not age, but if the others are curious and want to learn new things)

Now, of course I do believe that ageism is a thing, still, I'd think there're somewhat many good workplaces that aren't much affected by it

[orionblastar]

I'll keep that in mind. Hope it doesn't end up like The Interns movie.

[rikroots]

While there is a degree of ageism in the industry - avoid companies that advertise their ethos as "work hard and play hard" because having to do most of your office politics half-drunk in the bars after work is not much fun - there are also a lot of people in the industry who genuinely care more about a person's ability to learn and adapt than the date on a birth certificate. Believe in your abilities. Wishing you good health for the future!

[orionblastar]

Thank you, I learned 27 different languages since 1979, most are so old that there are no jobs for them anymore. I used to be a master at Visual BASIC until Dotnet came out.

I can learn any language on the market if I wanted to. I am a quick learner as I have the theories of computer science in my head as I learn.

[rikroots]

My first "paid" gig was winning £50 for submitting a game written in AMOS Basic to an Amiga computer magazine, which got picked as the magazine's "Game of the month". It's still an achievement I'm really proud about.

[cutemonster]

What are your 4? favorite languages? (Among those 27 :-))

[orionblastar]

BASIC, C, Ada, COBOL.

[cutemonster]

Ok. I like Ada a bit, we studied at University, incl for a hard real time simulation problem :-) Never did any COBOL

Have a nice weekend tomorrow

[K0balt]

I’m 53 and started FORTRAN programming in 1975ish on the VAX at my moms work. Bought an Ohio Scientific C2-8P a year or two later with my brother, and that’s when I got into programming games and really started to learn (BASIC) fast foreword 44 years or so, and I’m working in solidity writing contract code in a blockchain startup with a bunch of early 20s guys. They call me dad and are always asking advice on architecture and data structure problems Just closed our first round.

Work on projects, not at jobs...that’s my advice.