Do You Want to Be Doing This When You're 50?

[didizaja]

https://prog21.dadgum.com/154.html

[metadat]

As I roll up on 40, I think it's a bit late to ask this question.

Every day is a new day, though. Just because I did it yesterday doesn't mean I have to continue with the same tomorrow!

... unless I want to keep my house ...

[hotpotamus]

It would be nice to have that kind of job security.

The key is to write a program that steals fractions of pennies from the company over time so you can retire early. If a disgruntled employee burns the building down, covering your tracks in the process, so much the better.

I wonder if the person in the article was aware they were nearly quoting the protagonist of Office Space?

[nikau]

Hopefully as you get older you naturally become less hands on and more "bigger picture" tech lead or architect.

[fargle]

nope.

I used to say: "40! ha, i'm going to buy motorcycles and fast cars and eat badly and drink too much and have dangerous hobbies and hopefully die young before i get old like you 40 year old geezers."

then I had kids and that kinda doesn't work now. so now, sadly yes. I don't want to be doing this at 50 or 60 or 70 or ...

now go give your dad a hug

[metadat → fargle]

I used to say the exact same thing!

I don't have any kids yet, but once it became clear my body wasn't what it used to be, I stopped feeling invincible and realized it sucks to be trapped in a messed up body.

This helped to reduce the poor decisions. You just don't know how long you might last.

[hindsightbias]

Look at it this way, you can always be a manager.