Ask HN: To anyone who cares to read this. How old are you roughly?
I was just wondering whats the average age of people here, one of the few public forums where I think its mostly humans? If ur curious also maybe drop a quick comment.
58 comments
50s. When everyone else was getting Atari's I got a Commodore Vic20 and how to write software games book (My parents were both in software startups starting in the late 70s). Did software, burnt out, moved to IT management, ended up blowing my life up, now I'm completely f'd. 50/50 poor work/life balance combined with poor homelife, both feeding the other. It's interesting to have seen American life from the struggling 80s middle class that made genX latch key, to the top and now to the bottom.
Age 77.. started with Fortran in '68 on an IBM1130, assembler on a Linc-8 in '70, then at UofWaterloo on IBM360/75 with (omg) 3MB ram. Then scientific programming mostly Fortran or asm, switched to turbo Pascal in 88-89, then Delphi and MATLAB. Currently mainly work in VsCode using markdown codeblocks in a way a bit like Jupyter (see VsCode extension Hover-Exec) for a range of stuff including art installations.
I didn't understand 70% of the stuff you said, but wow! One question, how did you update yourself and keep up throughout all these years?
Through scientific collaboration mostly - HN now!
61, got into computing just after toggle switches, punch cards and paper tape, thank goodness.
I was, however ready to swear on a stack of Bibles in 1981 when I picked my major, that there was no money to be made in software. It looked like shareware was going to take over the world and drive the cost to almost zero.
Moore's law was an awesome ride, and I think we've got at least a 100:1 improvement left in efficiency.
I was, however ready to swear on a stack of Bibles in 1981 when I picked my major, that there was no money to be made in software. It looked like shareware was going to take over the world and drive the cost to almost zero.
Moore's law was an awesome ride, and I think we've got at least a 100:1 improvement left in efficiency.
Why make it easy? When I was in middle school, we had WiFi at home before we got off dialup. I spent some days trying to figure out how to bridge the two before we got cable broadband. We also got our first cell phones as a family a year later, a couple of Sprint flip-phones with extendable antennas.
71. So far, the oldest to respond.
Only a tiny minority of readers are likely to respond, though. And all you will learn from the responses is the age disribition of that tiny minority! Who knows how well that correlates with the totality of HN users?
Yeah i was thinking that, but at least I have some idea that the age is different than I thought here, most responses are 40 and above apparently which I never would have guessed. I also would never have thought people in their 70's would be here !!!!
I'm a few months shy of 48. I've been writing code since I learned to write BASIC games and utilities on my TI-82 in high school, ca. 1993. I still love coding, but it's getting harder and harder to make a living doing it.
About to turn 64. Started coding on paper in the early 70s, on a home machine in 1978.
Close to 50. Been programming for fun since I was 6, for a living since I was 19. And now, thanks to LLMs, I'm thinking of leaving that behind and becoming the world's oldest apprentice electrician.
Do it (if you want to). You wouldn't literally be the oldest. My old IT manager retired in his 60s and did this (and is now a working, signing electrician). It even sounds like he kinda got some automatic seniority of sorts, due to his age and maturity.
So yeah, it's doable.
I semi-seriously consider going into the trades after retiring from tech.
So yeah, it's doable.
I semi-seriously consider going into the trades after retiring from tech.
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm definitely thinking about it: the money would be the biggest drawback, it'd mean living a lot more frugally, but back of the envelope math suggests I could live on it.
How does one go about finding an apprenticeship electrician position? Is that the regular path in this profession? Become an apprentice first?
In my area, you can hook up with IBEW, the electrician's union and they'll essentially bootstrap you. There's some strings attached, but it's not too long of a commitment. YMMV.
That's the usual way yeah, you come in as an apprentice and work your way up. There are specialized job boards in addition to the usual general-purpose ones, which are often run by the government or a relevant union.
Turning 37 in two days. =D
Been programming since I was 12. The passion has never left. <333
Been programming since I was 12. The passion has never left. <333
52, started coding when I was 12 but doing mostly sysop/admin things now
I’m 34 and I’d say the 30s plus demo is what comments most here. I don’t know many peers who read HN regularly either even though I know a lot of engineers and founders in SV.
34. I am programming since the age of 13. Still love it <3
I’m 48, started as a web dev at age 30. I’ve been at a non-profit for quite awhile so not big tech and not big tech $ but I like my job and coworkers.
Old enough to know better but young enough not to care.
I forgot to say I'm 25 myself, started coding like 2 years ago maybe, that said, I'm not a coder. I vibe code only.
Haha. What are fun things you've built so far?
Check it out: https://testflight.apple.com/join/xGPuqqhS
I'd love feedback :)
Bummer, I don't use Apple.
Older side of Gen X. Very likely old enough to be your father, somewhat likely old enough to be your grandfather.
Turned 40 this year. Started coding as a teenager but didn't work with it until more recently.
44! Got into programming in my early teens. Landing my first dev job at 19. Still love it.
You should have created a poll instead of a question. I know HN supports poll
33, working on web projects since I was around 12 or 13.
I am turning 37 soon.
23, coming up on 24.
37, coding since 12
28.
40's
40s
Mid-50s
[deleted]
45
Almost 40
80
54
Roughly 40
Late 20s
Early 30s
30s
64
late 50s