My project leader, who is just a scant few years younger than I, makes jokes about assembling a team of grumpy old men (there are 5 of us on the team older than 45). But he knows what we're capable of. Worth putting up with all the creaking and grumbling!
Bear Bibeault wrote:My project leader, who is just a scant few years younger than I, makes jokes about assembling a team of grumpy old men (there are 5 of us on the team older than 45).
For year, I used to argue with my boss that rather than having a team of 20 rookies and two experienced folks, why not do the whole project with five good, experienced folks. She claimed that it was impossible to gather a team of good folks, whereas rookies were easy to find and hire.
Back then, it might have been that there are not a lot of experienced folk to hire. Perhaps you can do it now. I still believe that experience can beat enthusiasm. But then, since I'm old, I may be biased.
I dont deny that older programmers are better. But a comparison of age Vs reputation in stackoverflow does not really make for a good argument. Reputation can often be misleading to the quality of answers a user can provide. Age is also not a variable that is validated by the website.
The awesomeness of some of the older folks I have worked with is beyond words. I have also seen my fair share of pointy haired individuals
Bear Bibeault wrote:But the pointy hairs usually end up as management, or ivory tower architects.
Aint that the truth
John Jai
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In the two mncs i worked, if you have not become a manager or architect within 10 years of your career you will be looked upon differently. People @ 30 mostly move to management - so i never seen them code and can say old guys rule - the smaller ones and not the deliverable (or simply the code)
John Jai wrote:In the two mncs i worked, if you have not become a manager or architect within 10 years of your career you will be looked upon differently. People @ 30 mostly move to management
MNCS: Massively Nutty Clown School?
You are talking about the Peter Principal. People get promoted to their level of incompetence. A great programmer becomes a manager, say team leader. If she is a great team leader, she gets promoted to group leader. If she is terrible at that level, she keeps that position for the rest of her career.
We old guys are not talking about that. We are talking about folks who have 30+ years of serious hard core development and design chops. Three or four of them can out-produce a team of 30 rookies. IMHO, YMMV, etc.
Regarding the featured T-Shirt: isn't it interesting how such garments are generally shown off by a member of the sex that is unlikely to wear it?
The article shows that older programmers are better programmers, not that they're better looking. No offense to Pat, but I'm pretty sure I prefer the model in the article
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