
Learning to code will not make you rich (or particularly powerful) - pauljonas
http://scripting.com/2013/12/10/learningToCodeWillNotMakeYouRich
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cafard
Mark Zuckerman was still in kindergarten when I started to learn to code, and
I think Bill Gates was only fairly rich. I learned to get some specific things
done, found it useful, and started looking for more things to do.

(Actually, I've never looked into MZ's biography, so he could've skipped a few
grades, and I have no idea about the rate of growth of Gates's wealth. Still.)

------
a3voices
>> When you reach a certain age, you're put out to pasture to fend for
yourself. People seem to think "coding" is a young person's activity (even
though it isn't), and if you're lucky enough to get a job doing it, you'll
have to find something else to do when you're 35 or so, and that's not going
to be so easy.

Why is this?

~~~
pixeloution
The author is making a false assumption; I work for one of the largest
companies in the world and we have quite a number of age 40-50 year old people
in individual contributor roles earning healthy (low six figure) salaries.

I personally know plenty of people who are 45+ still working as programmers.

~~~
pauljonas
I don't believe it's a false assumption.

While I'm approaching 50 and still work as a programmer, I've witnessed, over
my career, ageism. I can tally thousands of developer jobs (mostly old school
mainframe programmer spots, but still, very lucrative paying positions, within
the metro Phoenix bounds, where mostly older programmers were let go in lieu
of outsourcing / non-immigrant visa holders.

It shows up in hiring, even recruiters inform you to chop off your resume so
you won't be thought of as "older".

Just look at the camera panning into the crowd at Google Developer talks -- I
don't see many people over 40 in the crowd. A few, but the demographics most
definitely skew younger than the average worker. Even here, at ycombinator, PG
has stated that older folks just don't have the necessary energy level for
startup work.

~~~
ommunist
Elder folks seen that and been there, they usually tend to avoid burnouts and
protect themselves from overexploitation consciously. For that they are often
discriminated as 'having insufficient energy' by those who are too greedy to
pay decently for quality input. But you know, in the long run experience
always beats enthusiasm. Think about it if you plan for something longer than
'build now-cash out early'.

