View Single Post
Old 02-06-2011, 06:11 AM  
alf6300
Confirmed User
 
Industry Role:
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 766
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiopa_Matt View Post
Ever since I started in this field, back when I was 19, I've always pinned a developer's shelf life at 35 years old. After that, the creativity and innovation disappears, plus they can't competently keep their mind wrapped around 2000 different things at once, which is what's required in a good developer. I've always told my clients to stay away from hiring developers 35+ years old, as they're not going to be providing you with the most innovative, creative, and cutting-edge solutions, which is what's required to succeed as a business.

That means I have about another 5.5 years to get myself in a management position, where I never have to type a single line of code again.
Not sure if that is a rule, but there are certainly notable exceptions... some of the best developers (= including writing code) i worked with, were 50+.

I remember one guy that was offered countless times to take a management position. He did not want to: he just had more fun writing code. He may not have been the fastest in jotting down lines, but what he did was clean and *worked*. He had a singular gift for writing almost bugless code. We could have released his stuff with no beta testing.
__________________
--
alf6300 is offline   Share thread on Digg Share thread on Twitter Share thread on Reddit Share thread on Facebook Reply With Quote