God these types of polls make me feel like a geezer.
Just in case any of you whippersnappers are wondering what it feels like to start hacking in your teens and continue (in one form or another) to be hacking into your late 40s: It is pretty much the same after the first cup of coffee in the morning. Where it differs is the lull in the afternoon makes me want to nap. (So I do.)
The drag is that until I look in the mirror? I'd tell you I'm 20-something, and I have to genuinely remind myself that I'm pushing 50.
There was an article on here yesterday that said something along the lines of "if you're older than 23 most startups won't even give you the time of day" or some tripe of the sort. I find that to be a negative, untrue stereotype, and it's nice to see the data back up my opinion.
We had one of these just three months ago:
I'm 44 and have been writing web apps since the late '90s. As a UI architect now my JavaScript / front-end skills are in very high demand and I am writing by far the best code I have ever written.
A couple of years ago I faced a cross road in my career to either go into mgmt (director of UX) or commit to development. I chose to remain on the technical path and haven't regretted it one bit. I haven't experienced any overt ageism but I do feel I need to keep my skills at the cutting edge to stay on top like a cagey vet.
Looking forward (and in the mirror) I realize the clock is ticking wrt promotions and salary so I'm working on a couple of side project/apps/start-up ideas with the idea that eventually I will be able to leave the mon-fri corporate world behind once and for all.
Ugh. I turn 40 in 3 days. Thanks for the reminder. :-(
All joking aside, it isn't so bad. EDW's chart above is pretty accurate in some ways. Certainly life doesn't end at 40(ish)...
In my case, the main issues are more joint pain, more random stiffness (after long car rides or something, for example) and other minor physical issues. Well, that and adult-onset (type 2) diabetes. But that's managed with oral medication, diet and exercise, and isn't exactly the end of the world (although I was pretty unhappy the day I was diagnosed).
A friend of my parents is nearing 70.
In his younger years he reversed engineered the apple2 and excels in music, painting and and of course hacking like there is no tomorrow. He can literally build anything he wants to.
He is an expert in assembler and and a couple of higher level languages, but it is his assembler skills that have always amazed me because he would always produce some crazy hardware for his many passions. And he had many. This was besides running a successful bank security company.
He is a watch geek and is building this in half size from scratch litterally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Olsen's_World_Clock
One of the wrenches is 400 years to resolve around it's own axis.
Here is some of that work.
http://000fff.org/watches/523223_10150679399796150_150139365...
And here are some more of his work:
http://000fff.org/watches/134363_468677071149_7733152_o.jpg
http://000fff.org/watches/135126_468676956149_1839796_o.jpg
http://000fff.org/watches/169423_468677241149_6736953_o.jpg
He also designed this small boat harbour for the local area he lives in https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=bryggen%2C+copenhagen... because he bought a boat.
I somehow wonder how many Da Vinci's are out there with these kind skills. I can't even begin to think who they manage.
Would be cool to do a series of some of these holder hackers.
A few things I found with getting older; 1. Fear of death actually lessens? At least with me. In my twenties, I was a walking Woody Allen with a brain tumor. 2. If my sex drive was like it's been lately; I might be a billionaire? I spent a lot of time chasing tail. 3. Anxiety will lessen as you age. You will probally just stop drinking in your late 40's-- just because you don't need the effect anymore. 4. You will lose a lot of good friends, if like me, you enjoyed people older than you. A therapist once told me to make friends with younger people; they will outlast you. I though it was selfish at the time, but understand now. 5. Treat your mother, or father well. They most likely were you only Cheerleaders in life. 6. Success has many heads. Meaning some of you might mike a fortune. Some might find something they truely love doing in life. And, some are blessed with good genes--yes, good looking people, many times, are treated well. 7. Your interest will vastly change as you age, at least for me. I hated computers when I was younger. I loved philosophy and art. 8. It really goes by so quick it's sad. I really mean that. Don't spend your life in an office, or anywhere if you are just waiting until retirement. Most guys die in retirement, only after collecting a few pension checks. Get used to living on the cheap, if you feel you just don't like the 9-5 B.S.. The chicks that will stay with a underemployed guy, truely love you. 9. I never thought I would get old, but it happens. 10. In terms of health-- eat less. That's all I can say. Forget about working out all the time-- joint damage. Vitamins--might make things worse? Try to get enough sleep. And moderation in drugs and alcohol. 11. Stay humble, if you ever were? Don't ever rule out a nervous breakdown. Meaning, do think you're Superman. 12. If you ever break out of middle class-- really give back. Most every rich guy I ever met, had a rich parent.
I don't really feel a huge change between 24 and 34. That may be because I don't like children, so the normal get married have kids thing isn't happening. I guess 34-60 or so is roughly the same then as well, except maybe with more medical issues, hopefully tempered by advances in medical science and increasing personal wealth.
Most age discrimination seems to be more birth year discrimination. I don't think 34 year olds now are treated as the incompetents that we treated 34 year olds in 1999, because back then, there really were not as many 34 year olds with Internet/tech/etc experience. (Obviously some, who are now largely the not accomplished people, but it was a small percentage of the population.)
Thus far:
0-10 |o
11-15 |.
16-20 |OOO
21-25 |OOOOOOOOOOO
26-30 |OOOOOOOOOOOOO
31-35 |OOOOOOOO
36-40 |OOOO
41-45 |OO
46-50 |O
51-55 |O
56-60 |o
61+ |oI'm so old I use a combination of lit and unlit candles to represent my age in binary on my birthday cake so I don't set off the smoke alarm.
My birthday was last weekend and you set the categories so that I just moved up. Thanks. joints creak
65 and still hacking ;)
I'm 45, each time this kind of voting scares me, I'm indeed too old for this IT thing, but what else can I do? what are those 40s/50s doing? all managers/bosses? or out of work? I'm curious.
Wow, so I finally registered for HN, just to be able to comment on this one. And man, I'm feeling old at 33.
I've having been developing professionally since 18. I took a weird route, spending one year at uni (17), then working full time, and getting my degrees at night before it was fashionable to do so. In ~15 years, I've had the gamut - developer to multi-geo team manager, with ownership of 9 datacenters. I vastly prefer software.
I'll echo edw519 there - quality of life increases dramatically once you get out of your 20's. The longer you're in it and learning, the more value you have. You've seen more, been around, and pick up new things faster - because they look like combinations of things you've seen before. Curve balls no longer freak you out, they're exciting.
tl;dr Getting older is actually awesome.
I'm 65, been programming since 1965. Successfully escaped management. I've never been bored, always having a great time. Just a few months ago I learned DirectX and wrote a 3D app. There are only a few jobs that beat programming (acting, jet pilot), but they're harder to get.
People aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.
So, at the time I looked, roughly 500 20-something punks, and roughly 50 of us 40-something geezers.
Dang, odds are that nobody I meet in the old folk's home is going to know anything at all about functional programming or Lean Startups.
I turn 36 in 3 weeks. Nothing much has changed except health issues. I just took a full medical test yesterday (liver, kidney, diabetes, etc.) and turns out I'm quite healthy. I exercise regularly.
But not mentally. I've suffered from alcohol addiction since the past 4 years. I've been diagnosed with soft bipolar disorder and acute social anxiety. Occupational hazards I guess. :)
So, people who are below 30, watch your health! That's all you have left as you get older.
This curve will probably have good correlation to the penetration of personal computers and the Internet when people are teenagers. The .com boom in the early 2000's (edit- ~'97-'00) brought a lot of new people into the industry and that's going to be reflected (those people are now in their early thirties) and the people in their 20's are those that got exposed to technology as a result of the .com boom.
Just turned 30 today and I don't even get to move up to a new selection.
I'm about 220 lbs old. I started at 180 lbs!
Damn, 31 today. Can't click the most popular 26-30 option anymore.
...what the hell are all these 10-and-under kids doing here?
Whoah, I'm about to make my third category transition while still working for the same startup.
At what age would you say you were smartest, if you have noticed any fluctuation? I hear you mental power peaks at about 22 and begins to decline after 26, but that's pretty depressing, and I don't want to believe it, so if you have experience to counter or confirm this, please share. If you have noticed any decline in "fluid intelligence," is it negligible? Does your wisdom and experience outweigh any mental decline in real-life situations? How does age affect creativity? Thank you, wise elders.
Always a reminder to myself:
Linus started Linux at 21, Martin Odersky started designing Scala at around 46, likewise James Gosling fathered Java at around 39, Joel Spolsky founded Fog Creek around 35, Jack Dorsey founded Twitter around 30.
The measurement of time is a man-made system, it does not matter if you're 20 or 65. Comparing yourself with amazing people and their achievements and age will gain you nothing but discontent.
I'm 26, I'm excited with what I'm living with right now and what I'll be taking on in the years to come.
I've always wondered what is the objective of the poster behind these poles.
Are you trying to figure out if you are too young for something, if yes, then the answer is No you're not too young.
Are you trying to figure out if you are too old for something, then the answer is No, you're not too old.
If you're trying to figure out if you should fund someone, hire someone, have any sort of relationship with someone (regardless of the type of relationship, personal or business) based on some data, than I feel sad for you.
Did I miss anything?
An ASCII histogram of HN users ages. Average = ~27 Inspiration cred: mixmax's post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039)
0-10 - 11-15 - 16-20 --------- 21-25 -------------------------------- 26-30 -------------------------------------- 31-35 ------------------------ 36-40 ----------- 41-45 ------ 46-50 --- 51-55 - 56-60 - 61+ -
Histogram so far:
http://quickhist.onloop.net/0-10=59,11-15=39,16-20=512,21-25...
If the numbers are true (which I doubt), then the majority is on their 20s... well, that explains a few things.
It's interesting to read the poll results alongside this link (posted earlier to HN) (http://blog.argteam.com/coding/a-history-of-film-in-wikipedi...)
Oficially I'm 36. Phisically I'm 73. Mentally 51. Hackerly, trying to get out of school.
Didn't we have one of these recently? I remember pg commenting how HN can no longer use the honour system as there were too many 0-10 and 61+ entries. pg joked he'd make the fonts larger to be more easily seen.
There's no way that was 2 years ago, was it?! :O
I have always been in the most crowded bucket, so I guess we're aging together HN :)
Best thing is, no matter how many years I live past my age now (20) I'll still never live a day without learning something new. Today it was `termios` tomorrow who knows. It's a life of adventure and discovery.
I'd love it if some of the teenagers here could send me an email at zchlatta (at) gmail.com. I'm looking to put together some sort of group so we can meet some other young people like ourselves.
51 here. Never really learned how to code, though I always wanted to. I fooled around with AREXX on the Amiga and Python later on, but that's about it.
I've been working with startups since I was about 17 (20 now). At first I felt like a bit of a novelty, but now I feel like just a regular dude.
Neat to see how much more traffic HN has been getting over the years and yet how the average age seems to be creeping up. Oldmanysiteis?
I'm two month older since the last age poll.
40. Coding as a very enjoyable hobby since around age 9 on our Apple IIe. Anyone have advice on how to turn that into part time $ ?
It's interesting to see that in all three polls, after the 30 mark, the number decreases significantly. Why is that?
It depends where you are. I'm currently 21 here, but I think I'm still 20 in the other side of the world. :)
I'm scared that I had to go down through the answers so much in order to find my age bracket. Getting old!
I'm so old I still reckon in baud.
Just got graduated and got a job in the software industry. Learned a lot from reading hacker news articles.
Thanks HN
Waiting for the 'where in the world' poll, that might be interesting :-)
hahaha. I posted this question few months ago. Here is the result of my poll: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734
65. started programming when I was 20 years old.
Dang, I only have 3 age ranges left until kaput.
19 on the 2nd of August, so just a nipper!
782614065 seconds at the time of writing.
i am pushing 30 but I look barely 22. Needless to say, everyone i meet assumes that i am younger to them.
next year, I ll be moving up to click the second most popular option! (Btw, I m 20)
112
19 here, largely ignorant
62 people are 0-10!?
someone should close the older polls, no?
I'm 28!
Whats the use of this polling? Is this applicable any how in real life?
58, writing more code, having more fun, reaching more people, & making more $ than ever, all of which still seem limitless: