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I am a 55 year old retired person, having retired from active service in 2018, having worked as a Windows Developer (including WPF) and a Scrum Master / Project Manager. After that, worked a little with Web technologies, knowing nothing more than a basic JavaScript, as you can see from some of my latest articles.
Now, I have got a work-from-home part-time opportunity in working on (hands-on) an imaging and graphing application which uses WPF, and MVVM. Though I am not actively on the job market, I feel inclined to take up this opportunity. Though not the latest and greatest technologies like React, Angular, Kotlin, Android, iOS, etc., what I will be working on, is good-old-Windows-Desktop-Application-Programming, which I enjoy.
If you were in my shoes, would you endeavour into getting into this assignment?
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I would only come out of retirement for a project that spoke to me on some important level.
If finances were tight, then I would come out of retirement for any project I had most of the skill sets the project/position was looking for.
Side thought: I don't learn new technologies, etc. as quickly as I did when I was 25, I am almost 50 now. It will be worse when I am 60+, I am sure. Most of the junior devs on my team are under 30 and grok things much quicker than I do.
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I agree that it is not easy to learn new technologies at this age. However, this is a known one, general desktop Windows programming, which I am familiar with.
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slacker, I declare bullshit and throwing the flag. You learn just as well as you did in your earlier Years. I'm older than you - and what I have found is not an inability to learn. It's that we have so much experience we know nonsense when we see it.
Example: OP says "Quote: the latest and greatest technologies like React, Angular, Kotlin, Android, iOS, etc.
seriously? Setting aside the OS references, after 30+ years, we figured out that sooner or later you have to deliver something. We *know* we need something stable.
you're going to be fine 
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Quote: what I will be working on, is good-old-Windows-Desktop-Application-Programming, which I enjoy.
If you enjoy then go for it.
You've already said Quote: I feel inclined to take up this opportunity
Then go for it.
Though not the latest and greatest technologies like Fixed that for you 
Edit: I meant to say, I did something very similar 4 years ago. Had sort of retired, then decided to go back to work largely for the challenges (which I enjoy). Not enough challenges just answering QA here on CP
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CHill60 wrote: Not enough challenges just answering QA here on CP
The real challenge is often in finding what these people want in the first place
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Actually, I don't have a challenge getting to what they want...
I have to work to get it to what they NEED, and often reduce that to what they can afford.
They WANT everything done perfectly (without a definition of acceptable, usually).
And they typically want the computer to do "human" things, while expecting humans to do "CPU" things.
[When this account comes up, highlight it if it looks IFFY... LMAO]
[Should we display a highlight if the client owes money for too long? Nahh, the rep will see that!]
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That depends...
If I retired before 55 I'd probably have boatloads of money or I wouldn't be able to hold out for another 30 to 40 years or so without a steady income.
And if I had boatloads of money, I wouldn't need the job.
And a lot of great games have been released recently, so I'd probably find myself preoccupied...
Only you can answer this question, really.
Do you need the money, do you like the work, do you like working in a team again, are you bored otherwise, do you need to get away from your wife/kids...
You can always take the job, go through your trial period and quit after one or two months if it isn't what you expected it to be.
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Though not a boatful of money, money is not a problem right now. I am occupied part-time with what I like to do otherwise (which is spirituality), and this programming assignment is for the remaining part-time, which is what I am comfortable with. This is the reason for my inclination towards this.
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I think you answered your own question...
With ONE caveat...
Is there something else you are not doing, that you are avoiding?
Will this assignment be the continuous excuse as to why you don't have time?
[Hitting the Gym, Eating better, Getting a full nights sleep, connecting with people]
I have a bad habit of self-sabotage in that regard. I will let myself down far faster than anyone else.
Just a thought!
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I would take it if it looks interesting and the people would be pleasant to work for/with. I "retired" at 54 and was fine with it. Eventually, I missed the good parts of the grind and started contracting. Too many "part time" jobs were for 60 hours a week for 2 months, avoided them. Found great folks to contract for and jobs included some travel. Still have my hand in some IT stuff, just a few hours a month, remote (mostly surveillance cameras).
Been doing that for 30 some years.
>64
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Surely looks interesting - image viewing and graphing, which I've done for more than 10 years.
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forget Angular, this is crap.
Enjoy WPF and MVVM, very enjoyable and powerful
(though, admittedly, easy to get wrong too)
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Super Lloyd wrote: Angular, this is crap
Crap, but hot, and money-filled, looks like.
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Super Lloyd wrote: Enjoy WPF and MVVM, very enjoyable and powerful 
(though, admittedly, easy to get wrong too)
I can sing a song about that 
Luckily I found out my error soon enough and could redirect it.
Unluckily, I am not working in the field anymore so I will forget everything again 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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damn! good luck
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Sounds like you're bored. Go for it.
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As others have said, if it speaks to you, go for it.
Amarnath S wrote: which uses WPF, and MVVM
Personally, I would never, and will never, touch WPF.  WPF is, imho, one of those widow-makers of programming. 
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Don't you know WPF stands for: Woeful Pathetic Frivolity 
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Hm. Without a full-time daily job, working on something I enjoy from home would be an easy choice: do it!
As for not-latest-and-greates-tech, my personal (as in "grounds I work off when on my job") opinion is who cares. There's a lot of fads going on in the IT space. The new stuff may be new but that's about it, the new stuff may be even good, but who's to say the old stuff isn't or the new stuff is better than the old?
My next big GUI project will be made with Xamarin.Forms (to reach Windows & Android from the same code base, Xamarin.Forms could do iOS as well, but with Apple's paranoid restrictions, the use case can't be served under iOS which, by the way, isn't my job to tell customers), but there's no reason not to stick with "classical" WPF if it gets the job done.
Hell, I'm still doing a lot with Windows Forms. Something being old, stable & mature isn't a reason to switch away from it.
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why not?
take the job, especially if you like it.
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I am 64 and have done everything from embedded to CV and ML. I would not mind finding a part time WPF gig when I retire. If you have the time and the inclination, I would say go for it. You have nothing to lose.
Doug
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It looks like a good fit with the only caution I can think of is the support aspect and how it could suck you in somewhat against your will. Like, if you make the app, great, but then are you going to be supporting it? If you are, is that going to fit with your "retired life"?
This is an aspect where one can easily trick yourself into thinking "it won't be that much of an issue" but then find that oh, I can't go on a vacation or step away from things for a while to focus on something else, or if I do my vacation might be wrecked because of a support issue you feel you need to work on that rears its ugly head.
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TD;DR: yes
It sounds like it's something you'd kinda enjoy, and be paid for. People tend to live too long these days - extra cash is always welcome - and having a hobby that you're kinda into that also pays is great. If you don't need the money, it takes the pressure off too - if it stops being fun, quit.
------------------------------------------------
If you say that getting the money
is the most important thing
You will spend your life
completely wasting your time
You will be doing things
you don't like doing
In order to go on living
That is, to go on doing things
you don't like doing
Which is stupid.
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