I've spent three decades programming and did not stay in the management realm long because I wanted to keep doing real work. In those three decades I have seen many changes in the technologies, tools, techniques and trends. Over half my knowledge is now considered a relic of the past. The fundamental knowledge of logic, project management, efficient coding techniques and knowing to avoid bugs by choosing better paths still holds though my specific knowledge changes all the time. My knowledge and experience has high worth today because I stay adaptive and blend the old ways with the new in ways that make things better. I know I have value because I can get through to even the most arrogant young know-it-all developer once they realize I am not a dinosaur and they can actually learn something from me. That's a great thing but the sad truth is the industry values me less because of my age and salary requirements. I have to be cautious of working for startups and companies who think ten mediocre H1B visa hires can do what two seasoned veterans can do in the same time and budget. If a company lists a bunch of technologies that are less than a year old or more than three frameworks I will steer clear of them because they are going to be rewriting their code base constantly and introducing new bugs as often as new features. I prefer to stick with companies who have an investment in their code base and are moving to evolve it with well thought out plans instead of following hot trends. It may hurt me career-wise at times to do this but I'm not going to change my ways. If anybody should be worried about their skills losing value then it is the programmers who change their tools and technologies constantly. They do it so quickly and often that they gain no significant depth in their knowledge. I wonder how they will cope twenty years down the road when a new set of coders comes in with ideas they think are crazy and not well engineered. I'll hopefully be out by then so I won't have to see it first hand.
If anybody should be worried about their skills losing value then it is the programmers who change their tools and technologies constantly. They do it so quickly and often that they gain no significant depth in their knowledge.
This is so true. As a developer you don't become better, you stay at script-kiddy level. And there are 100 of other script-kiddy level developers that wants to take your job.
Your experience is probably worth a lot less than you think | TechCrunch
'Around the world, veteran developers with “valuable” experience are already being asked, with honest bafflement: “Wait, why are you trying to write an algorithm for this?'
'If you think your experience is automatically valuable, I warn you: think again. '
'Don’t let that happen. “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” That isn’t just good advice; these days, it’s an imperative. '
'The de facto assumption for most of the twentieth century was that experience was assumed high-value unless proven otherwise. '
'Why not just train a model in TensorFlow?”I don’t mean to imply that all knowledge and experience becomes worthless. '
The development experience is indeed worthless over time, however developers that have decades of experiences are very important for your company. The fact that they are still doing this job means that they are the top of their field through natural selection. The bad developers all became some kind of manager and lost the ability to develop.
These older developers might not use the latest and shiniest technology. Not because they can't follow or don't understand, but their experience is grown enough to know what works and what will fail.
4 comments
1 u/Morbo 22 Oct 2016 22:33
I've spent three decades programming and did not stay in the management realm long because I wanted to keep doing real work. In those three decades I have seen many changes in the technologies, tools, techniques and trends. Over half my knowledge is now considered a relic of the past. The fundamental knowledge of logic, project management, efficient coding techniques and knowing to avoid bugs by choosing better paths still holds though my specific knowledge changes all the time. My knowledge and experience has high worth today because I stay adaptive and blend the old ways with the new in ways that make things better. I know I have value because I can get through to even the most arrogant young know-it-all developer once they realize I am not a dinosaur and they can actually learn something from me. That's a great thing but the sad truth is the industry values me less because of my age and salary requirements. I have to be cautious of working for startups and companies who think ten mediocre H1B visa hires can do what two seasoned veterans can do in the same time and budget. If a company lists a bunch of technologies that are less than a year old or more than three frameworks I will steer clear of them because they are going to be rewriting their code base constantly and introducing new bugs as often as new features. I prefer to stick with companies who have an investment in their code base and are moving to evolve it with well thought out plans instead of following hot trends. It may hurt me career-wise at times to do this but I'm not going to change my ways. If anybody should be worried about their skills losing value then it is the programmers who change their tools and technologies constantly. They do it so quickly and often that they gain no significant depth in their knowledge. I wonder how they will cope twenty years down the road when a new set of coders comes in with ideas they think are crazy and not well engineered. I'll hopefully be out by then so I won't have to see it first hand.
1 u/roznak [OP] 23 Oct 2016 20:46
This is so true. As a developer you don't become better, you stay at script-kiddy level. And there are 100 of other script-kiddy level developers that wants to take your job.
0 u/derram 22 Oct 2016 20:50
https://archive.is/eFg1H :
'Around the world, veteran developers with “valuable” experience are already being asked, with honest bafflement: “Wait, why are you trying to write an algorithm for this?'
'If you think your experience is automatically valuable, I warn you: think again. '
'Don’t let that happen. “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” That isn’t just good advice; these days, it’s an imperative. '
'The de facto assumption for most of the twentieth century was that experience was assumed high-value unless proven otherwise. '
'Why not just train a model in TensorFlow?”I don’t mean to imply that all knowledge and experience becomes worthless. '
This has been an automated message.
0 u/roznak [OP] 22 Oct 2016 21:04
The development experience is indeed worthless over time, however developers that have decades of experiences are very important for your company. The fact that they are still doing this job means that they are the top of their field through natural selection. The bad developers all became some kind of manager and lost the ability to develop.
These older developers might not use the latest and shiniest technology. Not because they can't follow or don't understand, but their experience is grown enough to know what works and what will fail.