[edw519]

58, writing more code, having more fun, reaching more people, & making more $ than ever, all of which still seem limitless:

  edw519's Hacker Quality of Life
  
  |                            ?? 
  |                          **  
  |                        **
  |                      **
  |                    **
  |                  **
  |                ** 
  |              **     
  |            **
  |          **
  |     *****
  -------------------------------
     10   20   30   40   50   60

[bjhoops1]

I was really hoping "making more" would be followed with "love". Money's great too, though. :)

[garethadams]

Since this is Hacker News I think you can treat `$` as a placeholder variable for any word you want

[efnx]

My first thought was that I should evaluate everything to the right of it first!

[pasbesoin]

$_

[pestaa]

After a certain age, "making more" can't be followed with "love". Or so I've heard.

If I am aware of the correct meaning, that is. (Not native.)

[mingmecca]

40 here, still going strong. 18-22 times a month according to my wife's daily tracker.

Exercise, exercise, exercise.

[bjhoops1]

Wait, your wife has a sex tracking app? Of course if all couples are as prolific as my wife and I, I can only imagine what kind of scaling problems you'd run into tracking such vast oceans of data...

[x3c]

Worse than the scaling problems will be the count mismatch between your and your wife's app if data integrity breaks.

[andyhmltn]

The smoothest humble brag I've ever seen!

[peterwwillis]

Bob Dole might have a bone to pick with you.

[peterhi]

Pretty much the same here. Been coding since I left school in 1979. Comfortable but not really seen much money but its a great life.

However I have finally started to move into management. Meetings, be nice to clients, billing and invoicing. Bit of a pain but I can still code and finally get to try and NOT be the sort of manager I used to complain about :)

[terryjsmith]

What changed when you were 25(ish) if I may ask?

[edw519]

I got a job. With real customers who needed real solutions. That opened my world.

[mathattack]

I'm with you on the upwards trend. I would just toss in some non-linear jumps up as the family grows, and some setbacks as older family members become ill.

[zura]

Any advice how to stay healthy and be productive at this age? Maybe some specific treatments to lower the chance of heart attack and stroke?

[pknerd]

And how do you keep yourself energetic at this age? :) Impressive!

[rjh29]

I know you are well respected around here, but your ability to sound like a douche seems limitless too.

[Udo]

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "ability to sound like a douche" or is that just a random personal attack?

When I think about high-karma HN users with douchy tendencies edw519 is not someone who comes to mind. I mean, in any account exceeding a couple of hundred posts it's probably easy to find some less than stellar content, but I don't remember edw519 ever making a post as low as you just did.

[DigitalJack]

Crap, sorry about the down vote. I fat fingered my phone.

[VladRussian2]

>edw519 ever making a post as low as you just did.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4529609

[Udo]

At least quote me less misleadingly: "I don't remember edw519 ever making a post as low as you just did." - and it looks like you had to dig pretty deep to find something to make your counterpoint, too.

And the post itself? Even if we're retroactively judging someone for voicing a less than flattering opinion about a person who is by now dead, it's not nearly as low as this ad hominem attack above. Is that the worst you could find after putting in the energy to research that guy's content a year back? I probably said worse things this month, and most likely so did you.

I already speculated how we all made some comments that we're probably not proud of, so I'm really not getting what your point is.

[VladRussian2]

>after putting in the energy to research that guy's content a year back?

this statement and your whole post is just brain fart - i.e. outlandish conclusion made without knowing any facts or even basic understanding of context.

The HN community response to Aaron's cry for help was spearheaded by the above mentioned top-voted comment and was basically a prudish guilty verdict from a jury of his peers. It has prominent place in the history and is known outside of this echo-chamber, so no need for the "research".

[Udo]

Dial down the bile, Vlad. You're right, I didn't know the context of that post. Still, that doesn't neutralize my argument - we all have skeletons in the closet. Just because someone made a wrong call some time ago doesn't make it OK to engage in unqualified personal attacks, especially not if they've been a good community member otherwise.

I know, it's not fashionable to acknowledge the importance of civility, but I for one do believe it's a key factor in keeping a community productive and worthwhile. It's hard to believe that rjh29 would have engaged in that level of vitriol face to face, just as it is hard to imagine you dismissing my entire line of reasoning by selectively declaring one argument a brain fart if we had just met at the pub for a beer.

It's sometimes easy to forget there are real people on the other side of that screen and we didn't all come here just to have anonymous fights.

[tinco]

It wasn't a prudish guilty verdict. It was a reasonable response from the community, given the circumstances and the knowledge of the case at that time.

I don't think at all voicing your reasonable opinion on a public forum counts at all as a douche move. Not if it later turns out this opinion missed crucial information about the mental state and fragile support framework of Aaron. And especially not if that opinion was obviously shared by many members of said forum.

Claiming Edward spearheaded a negative community response to a desperate cry for help of a dying man is ludicrous. And I think you should apologize for insinuating that, as I am sure expressing these thoughts puts significant torment on Edward.

[aaronblohowiak]

As someone who fears ageism and my role as a hacker in light of the aging process, I am taking his post to be a beacon of light and hope, not anything resembling a 'douche'.

[zallarak]

Trust me, anyone who perpetuates ageism is somewhat misled. A diversity in the ages of employees is probably the ideal situation, because I can think of advantages/disadvantages the presence of a certain each age group brings to a team. On the other hand, if you find yourself losing energy/physical fitness and your abilities, its your prerogative to remedy that.

[davidcuddeback]

I'm a younger (~30) engineer who's enjoyed working with a few older engineers. I'd be interested in hearing more about what you perceive to be the relative advantages/disadvantages of each age group.

[sillysaurus]

From direct experience: you can't group by age. Some older engineers are douchebags. Some are the nicest people you've ever met. Some are incredibly talented. Some aren't.

[pvnick]

I thought it was a well-humored, insightful post and that your personal attack was completely uncalled for.

[CodeMage]

Just out of morbid curiosity, if you knew he was "well respected around here", what in the world were you hoping to accomplish by insulting him in your comment?

[Legion]

Just ignore him. I'm a little sad to see the comment get so many replies, instead of simply being downvoted into oblivion.

I'd love if we as a community could endeavor to give troll responses like that as little attention as possible.

[sillysaurus]

I was thinking mods should have the ability to kill individual threads of discussion in the comments.

[jackmaney]

Remind me, how many points of karma does it take to unlock the ability to downvote?

[podperson]

Where's the bump for "kids go to college"?

[throwit1979]

I don't think Ed has kids, which is partially why his quality of life is so high.

[pestaa]

You can't just make that many assumptions in one short sentence. Granted, I don't have kids, either. ;)

[gbog]

I don't think you are right, I think you are misled by some anti kid cliche.

[klibertp]

There was a better article somewhere, but first google result on the topic should suffice: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2284776/Can-parent...

[gbog]

As stated by Kahneman happiness (pain) level is felt in retrospect as an average of the most happy (painful) moment and happiness (pain) level of the last moment. If you have kids you have an easy happiness peak (say their first smile) and are likely to be less lonely in your old days.

[D9u]

Perhaps his children, like mine, are now adults with children of their own?

[fluidcruft]

Perhaps he had kids at 25.

[mahyarm]

That is really parent dependent. My mother took it really hard when I eventually moved out of the house and when I moved out of the same city.

[podperson]

There's going to be some kind of bump though...