Can Older Software Developers Still Learn New Tricks?

An anonymous reader writes "There's a persistent bias against older programmers in the software development industry, but do the claims against older developers' hold up? A new paper looks at reputation on StackOverflow, and finds that reputation grows as developers get older. Older developers know about a wider variety of technologies. All ages seem to be equally knowledgeable about most recent programming technologies. Two exceptions: older developers have the edge when it comes to iOS and Windows Phone."

Comments

Re:These older developers **read StackOverflow**

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't. Stackoverflow makes up stories to bring in "debate" and "what do you think?" comments. Many online sites use this ploy, misleading readers into thinking questions are genuine, and it's been going on for many years.

Re:One of two things.

[TapeCutter]

Yes, but grandma is not, nor has she ever been a developer. As I posted elsewhere my 80yo dad learnt python recently "for fun", hes a retired mechanical engineer, not a developer. I'm an old developer, the next thing I have to learn is NSIS. Like new cars, young developers don't have any rust, they have not lived long enough to have experienced re-learning things they knew in great detail 10-20-30yrs ago, Once you get to my Dad's age, "keeping ones marbles" is something to be thankful for. I also consider myself to be fortunate to work for a large Japanese firm, age and experience are given due respect and the company returns a consistent profit.