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More than 70% members have already been programming for at least 20 years!
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Well about 3/4ths of the profesional workforce is over 35. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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I think this just proves the usefulness of this site, for old farts, noobs, and anyone in between. StackOverflow is good, but different. Planet Source Code is no longer useful.
The Daily Newsletter is absolutely required reading. Half my team receive it.
I started learning in 1979, and coding/programming/software development/architecture has enabled me to get paid for playing with computers for a 25 year professional career. What better job could there be?
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Well I'm 80 and entered11 to 15 years. Although I started writing programs throughout my career, starting with my thesis in 1968, these were simply to solve problems associated with my research. It was only after I retired that I have attempted to write Apps. I've found it challenging, fascinating, exhilarating and incredible frustrating. I write terrible code. I try to improve it and most of the time it gets worse. But it is great for the mind 
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Started in 1987, working on a DEC 10 mainframe system, programming with FORTRAN IV.
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A DEC-10 was the main system when I was at university. Mostly Simula and assembler, but also some Pascal and LISP.
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Worked on DEC 10s 1972 - 1985 then a couple of years on Dec system 20s before moving to Vax and VMS. Most of the early coding was in assembly.
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I am hardly 26 right now. 
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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By starting early.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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give it time that's what we did.... 40+ years
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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You, Maheer and a guy from Scandinavia are the youngest regulars I can remember right now.
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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Just barely. And there are quite a few others on the site, I believe.
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Another poll should be, "What age group do you fall into"?
I would guess that most are over 50-55 years of age, at least the ones with 20+ years experience.
I am 49 with 16-17 years experience; started late.
I know a great deal of the regulars in the lounge are over 60, some over 70. Not too many 20-30 year old people hanging out there. 
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I'll be 64 this month and have 50 years, but not all professionally.
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Good grief! I'm younger than you are - I'll be 63 next Feb.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Seventy-three and a half, started coding in 1966 on a CDC-3200.
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I'm 72-1/2 started in 78...got a late start!
The less you need, the more you have.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut...occasionally.
JaxCoder.com
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I'm a year ahead of you on both counts. 74 and a half, first met the 3200 in 1965.
Wrote my first program on employer time a couple of years later.
Calculating scaling factors for production test equipment.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Hmmm, Monash University I presume? Faculty of Engineering? (The only faculty running a computing course then).
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Yes, Monash. As I recall, second year applied maths. I was doing science, but met a bunch of engineers through that course, and a couple of med students too (who did straight science for 3 years)
6440032 (gawd, the useless numbers permanently engraved on my grey matter!)
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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You're right about useless numbers permanently engraved on one's grey matter - 6655800
First year Science, discovered only Engineering had computing course, summer vac doing catch-up courses to cover the (small) difference with 1st-year Eng.
Second year Elec Eng, but by then I had discovered "the Nott" (a hotel frequented by students)... and women. So the following year was 2nd-year Elec Eng again.
Then Cliff Bellamy (head of computing) got me a vac job with Burroughs who gave me to Ford. I left there 10 years later.
I'm going to guess from your CodeProject name that you live at Katoomba, Leura or Medlow Bath.
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enhzflep is the password I got assigned at Monash to use the 64 bit DECs.
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This year marks my 40th as a programming professional (e.g. I got paid), and my 44th as a programmer.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Got my first Fortran manual in 1962 and been coding and programming ever since. Simple arithmetic puts me over 80.
I too am surprised at the huge majority of programmers with over 20 years of experience. Maybe only retirees have a lot of time to spend perusing this forum.
Joan F Silverston
jsilverston@cox.net
nhswinc.com
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