[ramtatatam]

I'm nowhere near of 50 years of experience but even with my 15 I can see the trend you describe. I feel natural progression is to move towards management or closer to business. If I am lucky enough to gain 50 years of experience I aim to do software as hobby (same as I was "feeling" it when I was a teenager) and gain business experience including network of contacts so I can do consulting.. Of course, best scenario would be not to have to work at that point but I plan for the worst.

[daly]

Every programmer I know retired into management. They made more, sometimes a lot more, money than I did. I had 8 "opportunities" to do that. I turned them all down.

My reasoning is that I don't understand why I would move from a subject I know really well (programming) to one that I don't know at all (management).

Plus I know I'm neither good at self-management nor good with people so wisdom seems to dictate remaining a programmer.

Note that all of the former programmers all claimed they wanted to either return-to or continue-to program. One of them even had it written into his contract that he could program "in his spare time at work" (who has that?). Not one of the managers returned to programming later in life.

Programming is hard, a lot of self-inflicted pain, and the ultimate source of frustration. Few people want to return to that once they have "escaped".

Know thyself.