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Forty and Still a Software Developer?

James Williams
Better Programming
Published in
6 min readJan 5, 2021
person standing in an office setting holding a briefcase and rolled up newspaper
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash

If you feel like 40 is too old, you are wrong.

Imagine this: You arrive at the office early. You drop your backpack and head for the kitchen. Your kids woke you up early after you spent half the night coaxing them to sleep. You need coffee.

With your coffee mug in hand, you notice three software developers talking in the kitchen. It’s 9 a.m. These youngsters are here early, you think to yourself.

You notice they’re wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Oh my God, they’ve been here all night. Crap! Did something fail? What now?

The CEO zooms past you, smiling from ear to ear. She skips over to the group and gives them a high-five, letting out a celebratory howl.

“You guys killed it,” she says.

Your first thought is there is no way you could have stayed last night. Life happened, and the kids had homework. You feel like you’re the butt of jokes. The clique doesn’t include you because you couldn’t pull an all-nighter.

Many of us live this horrific nightmare. The fear is being put out to pasture. Has the industry knighted young people as the stewards of technology? It’s natural to doubt yourself and wonder if you…

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James Williams
James Williams

Written by James Williams

Founder of COFEBE, Inc. We build tools that make engineer’s jobs easier. https://www.cofebe.com

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