Why you would want to program at fifty (or any other age)

Please change the font. The word "meme" looks like "mcmc".<p>As a developer that is much closer to 50 than many here are, I can say that it's a crapshoot whether I will be programming when I'm 50. I tired of it after a handful of years, but decided to stay on with it because I can't afford the paycut, and am still am going with it, getting close to 15 years now. But everyday, and I've tried another employer, I still can't stand it. I enjoy the freedom and art and creativeness, but when things don't work, which happens a lot, I waste time on it and feel stupid and depressed. Feeling smart 1% of the time and stupid 99% of the time and worrying about whether you will be able to continue it without getting fired is a horrible way to live. It has affected my health, my attitude, and makes me drink more than I should at times. But, we justify this with "we are making a good living".<p>Common things I think about doing are (1) buying and running a bar, but then I would have to deal with the alcoholics, prostitution, drugs, and other crap that goes with it (not worth it) and would feel that I was contributing to an evil in our society even though I love beer and good times, (2) selling old computer equipment and games (there is little money here, and I'm not a hardware expert, so screw that), (3) getting involved with my church (but they don't need more IT, I'm a developer anyway not IT, and I have no idea what else I have to offer), (4) helping humanity get into space (but I have little to offer there also), (5) developing Indie games (which I've done in the past to some extent, but I think that writing games just means that people will waste time away from their family and solving problems playing them), (6) going to work for a non-profit development group (but I'm a conservative, and I can't work with tree-huggers even if I have a very liberal opinion that software should be free or open source, which I realize is not the same). So instead, I take care of my family.

A colleague of mine who is 62 has, in 6 months, become incredibly effective in C#. He has learnt it faster, and his output is better than the 24 year olds who had to make the same switch.<p>He has been there and done it all: punch cards, assembly, VB6, managed a development team and worked for 20 years as a Project Manager.<p>He told me a few weeks ago that he never wants to retire. Work less - sure - but he doesn't want to stop. And with an ability like his, he won't need to.<p>In 30 years, when I'm 62, I want to be like him :)

I'm fifty and full time programmer. What the OP is missing is that while we have much more experience and are thus wiser on some aspect, our brain is much less agile to adapt and learn new things. If we would learn faster, we would also forget faster and loose the power of experience.<p>Any task where our experience is of value would be satisfying for me to do. Unfortunately we have all these stupid kids around in our way thinking they know it all better than us. The worst is the regression of html, xml and javascript we are forced to use but are shit. All the good thing of "old" languages are lost.<p>Note that the languages will change, but the fundamental concepts and principles remain the same.

A great wisdom: "You don’t match your age to your job. You match your motivations to your job."[From the article]

Consider Peter Neumann, who has been hacking since the early 1950s. At age 80, he is beginning work on the 5-year DARPA-funded Clean Slate project to "build something new from the bottom up" to respond to security problems. Recent HN posts link to NY Times stories:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4714328" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4714328</a><p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4722781" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4722781</a>

Creative programming at times can give me pleasure that's only equaled by a really good workout or really good sex.

Probably also keeps the risk of Alzheimer's down - mental stimulation is believed to have that effect.<p><a href="http://www.helpguide.org/elder/alzheimers_prevention_slowing_down_treatment.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.helpguide.org/elder/alzheimers_prevention_slowing...</a>

In my opinion, you have a lot to offer.<p>1) From a user experience / marketing standpoint - (target demo's have a better grasp of their own likes and "dislikes" when engaging an application.) - if one of the targeted demo.<p>There are "discoveries" that usually happen through conversation. A mature programmer can provide an entrepreneur perspective or another idea to improve the product due to the architecture of other programs (built in the past).<p>2) Depending on the Programmer; the older way of training code revolved around meticulous detail) - also very helpful sometimes in avoiding bugs.

I am well over 50. It has been a while since I took up a wholly new programming language, but I keep my hand in with quite a few. I tend to vote with radicalbyte's friend--being able to choose how much and when to work would be nice, but getting out of the house and working is definitely a good thing.

I think it's different for people that started to program at young age compared with those who started late. Also compare the professional 9to5 developer with the academic, scientific or entrepreneur programmer. Sure I hope to be programming at fifty because programming isn't my job, it's my joy.

I am 44 years old and on disability. I still try to write programs, but I write small ones. Due to a mental illness and a stroke, my abilities are limited, and I cannot work a job, but I keep on trying.