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Interesting, I am 46 years old. How does that work? Am I an agist prick if I am under 35 and just a prick if I am over 35?
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Your comment states that if you are over the age of 35, you have no place in this industry. I disagree.
I am 56 years old. I have been on the receiving end of age-based prejudice in this field more than once. I no longer tolerate it.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary Wheeler wrote: you have no place in this industry.
and I disagree as well. I think I was trying to be a bit dramatic to emphasize a point.
Gary Wheeler wrote: I have been on the receiving end of age-based prejudice in this field more than once.
So have I.
Gary Wheeler wrote: I no longer tolerate it.
There really is nothing you can do about it, really. You can't force someone to hire you, or promote you because you are 56 years old, and you no longer tolerate it....which is part of the point of my initial post.
Cheers. 
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I am 63 years old, have been a developer since the 70's, and probably will be writing code when I'm in my 70's (who can afford to retire?). Like you, I will not tolerate age-based prejudice, or any discernible prejudice for that matter. You can take my keyboard (or whatever device I'm working with) when you pry it from my cold, dead, fingers.
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Keep up with the under-35 crowd in software development? At 63, I still run rings around them.
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Sure you do. 
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Most, but not all, of the 35 and under developers I know are great at memorizing and churning out code. But often with little thought to how manageable the code is, how brittle it is, or how OO it is.
There is so much more to software development than coding, though coding well is definitely a must at any age.
What I notice lacking the most is the ability to see, design, and code efficient, reusable, maintainable solutions to the business goals in a given software project. Just code something quick and dirty, throw it out there, hope it passes QA, and then hope you have moved on before the hack you did becomes a maintenance or extension problem. That seems to be a common problem with the 35 and under developers. But fortunately, not all.
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How many trips have you made around the Sun?
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Nonsense!
I know a lot of people working on mobile development (mostly games) and at least half of them are over 35. It's not all about "crunch", although that was one of the reasons I got out of games dev* (in my 50's).
And it's most definitely not the case that younger means smarter, especially when it comes to doing clever optimisations to squeeze out the last bit of performance or to reduce memory usage.
[ * when I say out, I mean professionally - I still do indy development at home, including mobile stuff... ]
Days spent at sea are not deducted from one's alloted span - Phoenician proverb
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Wow, someone's got up on the wrong side of bed.
- Starting wages have risen faster than top wages, so your young colleagues make as much as you did with 5 years' experience.
- The more senior you get, the higher the expectations, not just in terms of experience, but in terms of IQ. Companies try hard not to hire senior people unless they are unicorns.
- Companies don't want to spend money on training. They you will get the hint and leave, once your skills need an update.
This is what causes the developer shortage. Sigh.
So yeah, I guess I did too.
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I can write code as well as you, you young whipper-snapper! (I'm 59). The only issue with me is that I need lots of naps! 
If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur! - Red Adair
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I'm 46 and need all the naps I can get.
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Mobile users don't see the poll on the homepage
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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We (me and you) are too old. 
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You don't know what old is. I learned to program my first computer in 1966, pure machine code keyed in instruction by instruction on the front panel.
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I was carrying after my grandmother these: [^] but knew nothing of programming then...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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The first system I worked on (LEO III/6: Leo Computers Society. Leo 3 photos[^] ) had magnetic tape but no random access storage. Main memory of 16K and a processor that played sounds so you could hear when certain regular programs were nearing the end of processing.
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Ahhh what we're talking about here is "real computers". Not terribly dissimilar to the ICL System 4's I cut my teeth on in the late 70's. Curiously enough, one of the links on that page was to an Aussie ICL/Leo reunion and behold! there were four guys that I worked with when I was an (ICL) engineer in Melbourne from '88 to 93....
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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All the guys in the photos of LEO III/6 were people I worked with when they moved the system to a new centre in south Manchester.
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Sir, that does not count: you aged very well, and I know you are interested in mobile development.
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But at my age I'm not very mobile. 
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lol 
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Jeremy Falcon
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