职业与工作方法prog21.dadgum.com
你五十岁时还想干这行吗？
Do You Really Want to be Doing this When You're 50?
2012 — 2025，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇文章以“你真想50岁还在做这行吗？”为题，讨论程序员把技术工作做到中老年的意愿与现实，涉及热爱、职业倦怠、转管理和年龄偏见。它既关乎个人选择，也折射出软件行业如何看待经验与长期从业者。
为什么经久不衰：因为它问的是每个技术人迟早要面对的职业寿命问题，而评论区跨越多年仍能提供关于热爱、倦怠与年龄歧视的真实经验。
HN 评论精选
长期编程的动力来自用户因自己的作品而获得的成就，而非技术或金钱本身。
57岁，编程33年几乎没休过一天，却比以往更有乐趣。我的动力不来自技术、工具、应用、业务、客户，甚至也不是钱；也不是自己造的东西第一次跑通时那种手舞足蹈的感觉，而是使用我作品的人所取得的成就。希望这还能让我再忙33年。
edw519查看英文原文
57, programming for 33 years with hardly a day off, and having more fun than ever. My motivation? It's not about the technology, the tools, the apps, the business, the customers, or even the money, although any of those can provide plenty of motivation. And believe it or not, it's not even about the happy dance feeling I get when something I built works for the first time. It's about the achievements of those who use what I built. Hopefully that'll keep my busy for another 33 years.
年龄问题暴露了隐性特权与年龄歧视：软件业把年长开发者视为职业失败，而手工艺行业把年龄视为资产。
请注意，这是对“特权”极其有效的展示。两个候选人先后面试，一个25岁，一个53岁，技术水平、认知能力和对岗位问题领域的理解都相当。特权在于：没人会明里暗里问25岁的人是否“还想做这个”，默认他全心投入，也不要求他证明对这门手艺的生活方式承诺。把这个想法反过来想：如果换成制琴师等木工手艺人，年龄是资产；一辈子设计吉他意味着热情和能力。切回软件开发，年龄却突然暗示“职业失败，只能留在技术岗”。你总有一天会老，如果幸运的话。但除非幸运得离谱，你不会在这行挖到金矿，到45-50岁就没有职业顾虑。不幸的是，我们这个领域就这样贬低能力和经验；这里是第二位Rails gem作者，而不是虚拟内存系统设计者，SXSW见！
tptacek查看英文原文
Please note extremely effective demonstration of "privilege". Two employee candidates interview successively. One is 25, the other 53. Both are comparably conversant in technology, evince comparable cognitive capability, are equivalently literate in the problem domain being tackled by the role they're interviewing for. Privilege: the 25 year old is not asked (overtly or subtextually) whether they "want to be doing this". It is simply assumed that the 25 year old's head is in the game. No demonstration of lifestyle commitment to the craft is required. Take the idea and turn it around in your hands for a little while. Try this: imagine that instead of software developers, these were master woodcrafters; luthiers, say. Notice how the subtext changes: age is an asset. A lifetime spent designing guitars is a signifier of passion and competence. Flip the switch back to development and notice how age suddenly connotes something else, like "career failure forcing person to retain technical role". You will get old someday, if you're lucky. But controlling for spectacularly unlikely values of "lucky", you are aren't going to strike gold in this field, such that you'll have no career concerns when you're 45-50. It is unfortunate that our field manages to devalue competence and experience that way it does; here's a second-time Rails gem author instead of a virtual memory system designer, see you at SXSW!
回归一线编程是因为创造和交付带来的满足感是管理无法替代的。
简而言之，是的，我40多岁。我管理程序员多年后回到编程，部分原因就是我不快乐。我越远离机器和“制造”，就越不快乐。所以如果你问我50岁想不想做“管理”，我会说“绝对不想”。让东西运转起来、学习并真正交付，这种享受很实在。我希望80岁还能感受到这些。管理人和流程从未给我同样的满足和乐趣。
jgrahamc查看英文原文
In short, yes, and I'm in my 40s. I actually returned to programming after years managing programmers in part because I was unhappy. I realized that the further I got from the machine and _making_ the less happy I was. So, if you asked me whether I wanted to be 'managing' at 50, I'd say "Hell, no!". The enjoyment of making things work, learning and shipping it real. I hope I'm still able to feel those things at 80. I never got the same satisfaction and enjoyment from managing people and processes.
要警惕幸存者偏差，真正值得学习的是如何长期保持热情而不倦怠。
如果你还年轻，一定要仔细读这里的回复。有很多像我一样五十多岁仍热爱工作的人。好呀！但这个样本当然有幸存者偏差。四十多岁离开这行的人，或者五十岁讨厌自己工作的人，有多少会来HN发帖？我热爱自己的工作，也试图分享这种热爱。但我的建议是：别只关注我们五十岁时多爱工作，要关注我们是如何走到五十岁还没倦怠的。
raganwald查看英文原文
If you're young, be sure to read the responses here very carefully. There are lots of people like me who love what they do at fifty or beyond. Yay! But of course, this sample has survivor bias. How many people who left the profession in their forties are going to post on HN? How many people who are fifty and hate their jobs are going to post on HN? I love what I do and try to share that love. But my advice to you is this: Don't pay attention to how much we love our jobs at fifty, pay attention to how we got to be fifty without burning out.
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