I'm just over 50. Here's ultimately what I think about aging and programming:
Programming is fun. I enjoy it now, more than I ever have. Three times I've created software that has built a business and livelihood for others. That is super satisfying, and at the same time, usually the source of things that are not as fun as programming (taxes, accounting, lawyers, nasty people).
When I run across other programmers my age, I see a lot of unhappy people, and that is kind of sad. A lot of the unhappiness comes from one of three places:
* Not leaning new things and discovering that the isn't demand for what you did in the 90s and 00s. Career prospects are dim, and bitterness sets in. It's easily solved by picking up something new - but be careful, new doesn't mean things 15-20 years old. So many people jump out of one old tech into another one that is about to be old.
* A lack of interest in leading, and being hypercritical of leaders. Here's the deal: if you leading the team, you pick what you want to work on, and you pick how you build. If you are just on the team, you'll always be on the wrong side of decisions. It's easy to lead a small team, and experience is really the backbone of really, really great small "l" leadership.
* Pathological drive to be correct at all times. You know, they person that can't let the smallest mistake go un-punished, every bad decision second-guessed and being willing to die on the hill of correctness over the smallest mistake. This drive makes you good a programming, but it makes relationships with others terrible, and leads to being isolated, alone, passed over and unhappy. It's really hard, but learning to pick your battles and understand that battles can be won and jobs lost really goes a long way.
That said, there's an awful lot of aging, talented, experienced developers out there that are doing great things, and having fun doing it. Find a way to keep it fun.
Programming fun because you find SOLUTIONS all the time. You find better ways of doing things. That is the nature of it because there is no need to write the same code twice.
Wow. Just turned 52. Love coding. Love building useful/meaningful things.
Your three paragraphs read like someone climbed inside the library of my head and just started reading all the thoughts there at once. I struggle or have struggled with all 3 of those. Especially the latter 2.
Programming is fun. I enjoy it now, more than I ever have. Three times I've created software that has built a business and livelihood for others. That is super satisfying, and at the same time, usually the source of things that are not as fun as programming (taxes, accounting, lawyers, nasty people).
When I run across other programmers my age, I see a lot of unhappy people, and that is kind of sad. A lot of the unhappiness comes from one of three places:
* Not leaning new things and discovering that the isn't demand for what you did in the 90s and 00s. Career prospects are dim, and bitterness sets in. It's easily solved by picking up something new - but be careful, new doesn't mean things 15-20 years old. So many people jump out of one old tech into another one that is about to be old.
* A lack of interest in leading, and being hypercritical of leaders. Here's the deal: if you leading the team, you pick what you want to work on, and you pick how you build. If you are just on the team, you'll always be on the wrong side of decisions. It's easy to lead a small team, and experience is really the backbone of really, really great small "l" leadership.
* Pathological drive to be correct at all times. You know, they person that can't let the smallest mistake go un-punished, every bad decision second-guessed and being willing to die on the hill of correctness over the smallest mistake. This drive makes you good a programming, but it makes relationships with others terrible, and leads to being isolated, alone, passed over and unhappy. It's really hard, but learning to pick your battles and understand that battles can be won and jobs lost really goes a long way.
That said, there's an awful lot of aging, talented, experienced developers out there that are doing great things, and having fun doing it. Find a way to keep it fun.