Ageism In Tech.

Ageism in tech. Quite the subject for the first rant, but here goes. I’m getting a little older now, naturally this has started to concern me a little. Not that I think I’m affected by this yet. However, I’ve noticed a few things.

Caveat 1: my sample size is meniscal. Like seriously this is purely an opinion piece.

My experience is that the older programmers fall into 1 of 2 classifications: act like they no nothing and therefore are very willing to let someone teach/show them something new, or act like the new thing is dumb and it’s a just a huge inconvenience to them but they’ll learn only what they need to learn.

I definitely DO NOT think that old programmers cannot learn new tech. Likewise, I don’t mind anyone asking me questions when they don’t know something. That’s how we all learn. I have tons of questions when I’m learning a new stack/tech. I probably ask so many questions my fellow colleagues wonder if I really have a degree. I must know everything about something before I truly feel competent. It’s probably a flaw. It makes me happy to see older people willing to learn new things. This is what keeps the mind from growing stale. Plenty of studies have shown that continually learning new skills offsets the symptoms of dementia.

I find it silly when older programmers think they don’t need to learn anything new. Or, that anything new is automatically dumb. Did they forget they’re part of a field that is well known for continually changing? I understand that learning new things is tiresome and feels like drudgery at times. However, this is true to ALL programmers regardless of age. It feels the same for me as it does for them. Attitude is the key.

We are all in a field that is making rapid changes, improvements and at times mistakes. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you know everything you need. Embraced the chaos that is, change. Accept that there will be someone smarter than you in said, technology. Its okay, we’re all in this rat race together.