[inglor_cz]

At 47, I am an older guy already. But in my generation, people who went on to be programmers usually started tinkering with code at ~ 11 y.o. (back then on ZX Spectrum and similar cheap beasts available in freshly post-Communist Europe) out of interest and passion, not because of "I want to build a lucrative career".

(Given how massively widespread piracy was back then, programming looked rather like a good way to do hard work for free.)

Money matters, but coders who were drawn into the field purely by money and are personally detached from the substance of the job is an unknown species for me.

"You can also solve problems as a local handyman"

That is NOT the same sort of talent. My fingers are clumsy; my mind is not.

[pjmlp]

At the edge of 50, similar experience.

Additionally in many countries, being a developer is an office worker like everyone else, there isn't SV lottery level salaries.

In fact, those of us that rather stay programmers beyond 30 years old are usually seen as failure, from society point of view, where is our hunger for career and climbing up the ladder?

Now the whole set of SaaS products, with low code integrations, that were already a bit depressing from programmer point of view, are getting AI agents as well.

It feels like coding as in the old days is increasingly being left for hobby coding, or a few selected ones working on industry infrastructure products/frameworks.

[bdangubic]

Hard agree, I am 51 and all of this resonates true with me except…

> That is NOT the same sort of talent. My fingers are clumsy; my mind is not.

if handyman work was paying $600/hr your fingers would un-clums themselves reaaaaaaly fast :)

[inglor_cz]

> if handyman work was paying $600/hr your fingers would un-clums themselves reaaaaaaly fast

I don't believe that. When it comes to motoric skills, including dancing etc., I am probably in the lowest quintile of the population.

Of course, I could become somewhat better by spending crazy amounts of time on training, but I would still be non-competitive even in comparison with an average person.

OTOH I am pretty good at writing prose/commentary, even though it is not a particulary lucrative activity, to the degree of being a fairly known author in Czechia. My tenth book is just out.

Talents are weird and seem to have mind of their own. I never planned to become an author, but something inside just wanted out. My first book was published just a few days shy of my 40th birthday, so not a "youthful experiment" by any means.

[whynotminot]

Just chiming in to say that in this — my era of AI Anxiety — it’s pretty cool you found something new and interesting to apply your talents to at 40.

It feels like we’re all going to have to have a reinvention or two ahead of us.

[jmkni]

Handyman work can pay very very well for those who are good at it