I Joined Airbnb at 52, Here’s What I Learned About Age, Wisdom, and Tech Industry

228 点作者 miraj大约 8 年前

13 条评论

ChuckMcM大约 8 年前

Here you go, the secret to relevance throughout your career: "I’ve spent a lifetime being curious about people and things, which, I guess, means I’m well-read and well connected."In my own experience being naturally curious has led me down interesting paths to meet interesting people and learn amazing things. As a parent I tried (and apparently succeeded) in nurturing the natural curiosity in my children, never shutting down a legitimate[1] 'why' question with a curt answer.If you have forgotten how to be curious it can be hard to rekindle but I think it is more a habit than a permanent change to one's brain. If you practice I like to believe it is possible to rehabilitate curiosity (even if I don't have any research to back that up.)[1] It helps to distinguish the difference between when your child doesn't understand the answer and when they simply don't like the answer. And the best way to do that is to toss it back to them as "What part of the answer didn't make sense to you?"

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dlwdlw大约 8 年前

This just feels irrelevant to me. Ageism is directed towards older individual contributors, not higher level executives whose job is mostly strategy. (And unofficially, providing meaning and perspective to the younger workers)It even seems to provide proof that being an older IC makes you irrelevant because the success story is not a coder. The lesson is that as you age it's either up or out. You either learn higher level skills or slowly fade into irrelevance as your ideological baggage acts as an achor distancing you from keeping pace with the now constant supply of young grads. (Now that coding is "cool")At the very very abstract level, companies are divided into people seeking meaning and those that provide it. Upper level executives provide meaning in work for the ICs. For the middle level executives they provide meaning in the "company".As you age, you're expected to be more wise and knowledgeable. Staying as an IC is a black mark of sorts that you've plateaued at some point. You either need to move into a meaning providing (or meaning enforcing) role, or stay as an IC but provide meaning in the form of technical wisdom. Otherwise, all else being equal, you stand out amongst the younger workforce.Previous rewarding specialization does not mean future rewarding specialization. The world can shift in a way so that your skills and ideologies and perspectives are useless. The ageism prevalent in silicon valley is that it's unkind to equally skilled low level people with one lerson being older.If your an older person and your skills are actually in great demand but low suppl(strategy and meaning making)y, the ageism doesn't apply.

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dlevine大约 8 年前

It's interesting to see this sort of perspective. I would like to see more of it.I'm not 52, but I'm in my late 30s and as an engineer who works at startups, I find myself unable/uninterested in doing the things I did in the past. For example, I find myself having to work smarter rather than just putting in more hours than everyone else (which is what I did in my 20s).It's also important to bring my perspective from 15+ years in the industry while at the same time coming into each job with a fresh set of eyes (he touches on this in the article). Just because I've seen a lot doesn't mean that there isn't still a lot to learn.

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cyberferret大约 8 年前

One thing that people don't seem to talk about is that with age, usually comes a broad network of colleagues and people that you know in an industry. Never underestimate the power of a network.A 50 year old engineer sitting alone in a remote location on the other side of the world is going to find employment and opportunities much harder to come by than a 50 year old engineer who has lived and worked in Silicon Valley for decades. (Ask me how I know... ;-) )Just the power of a warm referral, or someone in a meeting to say "Oh, I know so-and-so is really great with database security - I worked with him about 10 years ago...We should get him on board for this project..." can work wonders for a career.

kstenerud大约 8 年前

I'm 42 now, still highly employable, although not at all companies. And that's fine. They want someone who can churn out cheap but perhaps not so good code, more power to them. That's not what I'm interested in, anyway.But I know what I'm worth. I know that my code is top notch. I know that my standards are above most things out there, and it shows.I've released almost half a million lines of code for free as open source projects. I've gotten emails from people in the most remarkable industries, asking questions about something I'd written decades ago (for example, <a href="http://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/system/network/daemons/ringconnectd.lsm" rel="nofollow">http://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/system/network/daemons/...</a>). I've posted the more useful of them to my github account, and that's the first place potential employers look to see if I'm worth my fee. And I am.Age only becomes a problem if you stop drilling down into the technologies people use and REALLY understand them, and what lies underneath. Otherwise you really aren't worth any more than the guys coming out of college with no experience.

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alain94040大约 8 年前

I think this is great advice regardless of your age:> I asked a lot of "why" and "what if" questions, forsaking the "what" and "how" questions on which most senior leaders focus

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danderino大约 8 年前

"Many young people can read the face of their iPhone better than the face of the person sitting next to them. I’m not saying young people don’t understand emotions. Our digital world is full of emojis, and the term “emo” didn’t exist back in my schoolyard days. But emojis don’t create interpersonal, face-to-face fluency."I am really tired of statements like these.

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skmurphy大约 8 年前

This was the best take-away for me:<pre><code> I also learned that my best tactic was to reconceive my bewilderment as curiosity, and give free rein to it. I asked a lot of “why” and “what if” questions, forsaking the “what” and “how” questions on which most senior leaders focus. [...] My beginner’s mind helped us see our blind spots a little better, as it was free of expert habits. We think of “why” and “what if” as little kid questions, but they don’t have to be.</code></pre>

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tracker1大约 8 年前

Constant curiosity and learning are two of the things I love about software development... Most people gain and hone knowledge and experience in a particular sector or industry, and usually not very broad. With software development you hone your own craft, with a breadth of knowledge, experience, tools and techniques. You will be exposed to project management knowledge and techniques as well. But beyond all of this, in a career you will have the ability to work with any number of industries and areas of business. From eLearning materials for aircraft engines to business security in banking. It's an incredible opportunity.The one thing I have learned, is I'm not very interested in pursuing traditional management roles... I've dipped my toes in and hated it. But being able to work with some amazing people, be challenged by very opposing views and ideas and the opportunity to constantly learn from all angles is incredible.The work itself is often rather mundane, but what you get out of it isn't just the process of making something work.

bitterolddev大约 8 年前

This guy is both non-technical--which I correctly assumed, given that his essay was published in the HBR--as well as a former executive. His life experience is of little relevance to the average 40-something (or is it 30-something, now?) software engineer stifled by ageism.

oh_sigh大约 8 年前

Chip has his own wikipedia page....I think he may be an outlier. It isn't like he is joining airbnb as a Sr developer...

jypepin大约 8 年前

Reminds me a little of the movie "the internship". That's a good story.

paulcole大约 8 年前

>And yet we workers “of a certain age” are less like a carton of milk and more like a bottle of fine wineWhat a classically "Baby Boomer" statement. Confusing age with wisdom.Yeah as a white male boomer you grew up in an insanely prosperous era with basically everything stacked in your favor.Like if you'd didn't come out of that on top, WTF was wrong with you?Edit: Now that I've finished reading, this also stands out:>Wisdom is about pattern recognition. And the older you are, the more patterns you’ve seen.LOL, coming from an older person, this seems awfully convenient.