Stupid, business-driven programming involves Scrum tickets and story points and production support rotations and 15-hour days. It's quixotic, obedient, and culturally charismatic (to non-technical people who think greatness is produced by renegade geniuses in garages) but vapid.
So, a certain type of programming is a young man's game-- insofar as anyone else would stick out as not belonging in an arena defined by quixotry-- but that's a stupid type of programming that involves (a) total subordination to the business, (b) extremely long hours and high stress despite mathematically insignificant incentive compensation (e.g. 0.01% equity slices), and (c) not very interesting projects, rendered intellectually challenging only because of the obscene deadlines, limited resources, and political roadblocks that sometimes lead to invention by necessity (but, more often, create kludges and frustration).
Stupid, business-driven programming involves Scrum tickets and story points and production support rotations and 15-hour days. It's quixotic, obedient, and culturally charismatic (to non-technical people who think greatness is produced by renegade geniuses in garages) but vapid.
So, a certain type of programming is a young man's game-- insofar as anyone else would stick out as not belonging in an arena defined by quixotry-- but that's a stupid type of programming that involves (a) total subordination to the business, (b) extremely long hours and high stress despite mathematically insignificant incentive compensation (e.g. 0.01% equity slices), and (c) not very interesting projects, rendered intellectually challenging only because of the obscene deadlines, limited resources, and political roadblocks that sometimes lead to invention by necessity (but, more often, create kludges and frustration).