I'm terrified of older web developers. Because I'm becoming one.

It's my birthday today. Birthdays bother me--every year around this time, I start worrying over things I can't control and are probably inevitable. So let's just get it over with, shall we? This year, I'm worrying about the future of my career and my passion as a web developer. I'll come right out and say it: I have a fear of older programmers. And now, I'm worried about becoming one. What will my programming career will look like in, say, 14 years, when I'm 50?

I've had six full time jobs in the last 12 years, plus countless side projects, and I've worked alongside just a few older web developers. Now, I've worked with some damn amazing middle-aged managers, architects, DBAs, and software engineers, but I have never worked with a good middle-aged web developer. (By "older web developer," I mean programmers pushing 50, who were around 40 in the bust.) Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are good web developers that meet this criteria--I just haven't been lucky enough to work with (and learn from) them.

So today, I feel like I'm standing in the middle of the road, facing a crucial decision. I could stick to my current path, and remain a developer. I know what lies ahead on this road: a constant battle of long hours, hustling to staying fresh, adapting to new technologies and languages as they pop up--and overcoming the prejudices of younger developers, which I know too well. On the other hand, I could head in the direction of management--an equally scary proposition. That's a new and semi-unknown skill set for me. I may be great at it, but I think it's a hard choice to undo.

Someone else out there must share these fears and biases, or have faced this hard decision, and I want to hear from you! This is a topic I hope to explore over the coming weeks and months and hopefully, 14 years from now, I'll still be blogging as a happy, gainfully employed professional of whatever stripe. Until then, I'm going to try and enjoy my birthday.

 

今天是我的生日。生日让我烦恼——每年的这个时候，我都会为这些自己不能掌控但又无可避免的事情而焦虑。那就让我们聊聊这个吧。今天，我开始担心在事业上的前途，开始担心我作为一个web开发者对这种工作的热情。我可以坦白的承认：我害怕做老程序员。现在，我担心我正在成为他们中的一员。我的职业生涯将成怎样——14年后，当我50岁时？

　　过去的12年里我曾干过6份工作，再加上无数的辅助项目，跟我一起工作的都是一些年纪较大的程序员。而现在，我面对的却是一些让人困惑的中等年纪的经理，架构师，DBA，和软件工程师，但我就没遇到过一个优秀的中等年纪的程序员。（对于“老程序员”，我指的是奔50的，40岁左右的人）。不要误解我，我相信这种年龄上的优秀的程序员肯定是有的——只是我没有运气和他们一起共事和学习。

　　今天，我感觉像是走到了中途，正面对一个重要的抉择。我可以仍然沿着现在的道路走下去，仍然作为一个程序员。我知道这条路的前方会有什么：永不停息的长时间奋斗，努力的保持优势，学习那些如雨后春笋般出现的新技术和新语言，还有克服对年轻程序员的嫉妒，这个我感受太深了。另一方面，我也可以往管理层方面发展——一个同样令人恐惧的职业方向。这对我来说是一个新的，缺乏技术经验的方向。也许我能很好的适应管理工作，但我很难做出这个决定。

　　我估计很多人和我一样有相同的恐惧和想法，同样面对这样艰难的抉择，我希望能听听你们的意见！我希望关于这个主题的讨论能持续下去，数周，数月，一直到我50岁，我会一直以写博客为乐，会满足于在任何公司以一个专业人员的任何身份工作。现在，我开始努力去享受我的生日了。