in12parsecs

I got bit by the bug in a Commodore Vic-20 with a whopping 5K of RAM. I was 14, and a younger friend's parents had bought him this computer. My family had not the money for such "luxuries" back then. My friend knew not what to do with it - he was too young. We were not as precocious back then. ;)

He asked me to help, so I dove into the owner's manual and jumped to the games you could type in - and subsequently lose when powered off - the cassette recorder came later.

I've been doing the same thing for 46 years now. Creating, marveling, and sometimes wanting to defenestrate the machines. :)

He's not getting customers by rowing them across the river when the motorboats do it faster and cheaper. You compared a hobby to doing something "for a living".

I turned 59 this week. I am excited to go to work again. I use Claude every day. I check Claude. I learn new things from Claude.

I no longer need a "UI person" to get something demonstrable quickly. (I've never been a "UI guy"). I've also never been a guy coding during every waking moment of my life as that would have been disastrous for my mental health.

I am retiring in <=2 years, so I am having fun with this new associate of mine.

One pitfall I've managed to avoid all these 36 years I've been at it is not falling in love with the solution. I fall in love with the problems. Claude solves those problems far quicker than I ever could.

I can add to this as well. I am 59 next month. I got my current position when I was 55. I was convinced that it was over for me. I was coming off a 28 month, yes, month, self-imposed sabbatical. Somehow the stars aligned and the interviews went my way.

I, too, teach a lot in my position and mentor ~half-dozen younger people at a time. I do not work for a "cutthroat culture" company, thankfully! All of my protégés have moved from Production Support roles into SRE roles in the past 3 years.

My 36 years of experience allows me to see things someone with far less will not, or cannot yet see. My XP is valued.

I hold monthly SRE Learning sessions where I demonstrate SRE-centric solutions using Python and other tooling. I teach brand new developers what it is to be on a development team and how to function more efficiently on a day-to-day basis. I also got invited to sit in on our company's AI Dev Assist working group after they saw the prompts I was writing and using to implement new and maintain existing systems.

I must also mention that, early on, I won a company trivia contest at my company that included 1,400 participants, and 15 questions where speed mattered. After that, I got a lot of respect from the younger crowd. ;)

If you are practicing ageism in your hiring practices, then maybe you are interviewing the wrong older persons.

We mature (<-key word!) folks have a lot to offer back - you just need to be capable of seeing that in the one you are interviewing. Beware the Grousing Grey Beards!

I am teaching python to a group of beginner programmers. This will be shared!

I am old enough to still see "WordPerfect"...from the 1980s.

I couldn't read this beyond, "... played upon the integrity of the music industry...".