Programmers pour their lives into code to ride the crest of the Internet wave. When they grow old one day, where will they go and what will they do?

Many years later, on the morning of my 60th birthday, I got up at the crack of dawn, went to the park for morning exercise, then came back to make breakfast (I learned to cook when I was 50). After dropping my grandson off at school, it was exactly 8 o'clock. Since Beijing began odd-even month traffic restrictions in 2020, and this month is an odd month, I had to squeeze onto the subway. It was as crowded as ever. A young man offered me his seat. I looked at his slight build and said, "No need. You're in IT too, right? Today we're all programmers."

When I arrived at the company, the glaring new rule posted on the wall always made me uncomfortable: all server-side languages must use Come, mobile-side languages must use Swallow, and anyone still writing programs in Java, C, Go, and Swift will be fined 500 yuan. I don't know how many more new languages I can learn. In forty years of work, I've already used more than a hundred programming languages...

At 10 a.m., the post-00s Team Leader ran over and told me, "Brother Chi, was the newly launched smartwatch control UI made by you, old-timer? Seems there's a problem." I said it was made by Old Wang last week. With his presbyopia, he shouldn't have been doing UI long ago. He hasn't come this week; apparently he has arteriosclerosis. "Well, then please fix it for him..."

That morning, the boss received two more work-from-home applications, including one from Old Feng. The reason stated: bad back. Neither sitting nor standing helps anymore, so he can only install the screen on the ceiling and program lying down. I'm still okay—I've been playing badminton all along. Good back, good body, and I eat everything with gusto. But today at noon I had no appetite because of a toothache. All my teeth are starting to loosen, so I just picked some soft food in the cafeteria.

In the afternoon, the department had a meeting. I noticed that the only lead programmer born in the 1970s had lost much of his memory. After finishing the implementation details of feature point 8, he suddenly said, "Okay, that's point 1, now let's move to point 2." Until we got off work, we were still talking about point 2. After the meeting, the lead programmer blamed me for not reminding him—actually, I reminded him 13 times in total. I don't hold it against him; next year he turns 65 and will retire.

After the requirements were assigned, the afternoon's work was drawing interfaces, creating forms, and filling in program code. I've been doing this for decades and am very skilled at it. Coding time is always the happiest. Before I knew it, it was 10 p.m. Time to go home. After 9 o'clock, you're allowed to take a taxi.

At 11 p.m. I got home. The food was cold and the kids were all asleep. I lay on the cold bed, opened a copy of "Come Language Programming in Practice" and started reading. Being a programmer is a lifelong learning profession...

Readers who are programmers are probably heartbroken by now... Don't worry. If you don't read MacTalk, your later years will be truly miserable. Those who have read it are all fine!

Soon, I stood at the crossroads of thirty. Looking around, there was no road in the other three directions, so the only way was forward. Thus, very reluctantly, I moved onto the golden dividing line of 35—or what might be called the lifeline of programmers. I don't know which great god drew this line for us programmers. There are 360 trades, and every trade has its master. Why is it that only programmers have this line? When I Googled (or Baidu'd) "programmer at 35," all I found were sensational phrases like "Don't be a 35-year-old programmer," "Age anxiety in tech," "After 35, switch to management," "X things programmers must plan before 35." The moment I realized I hadn't planned "these things," I was utterly desperate. Maybe something bad will happen on my 35th birthday—will skills like coding, speaking, writing, and designing vanish into thin air? I might fall behind the times? I might get fired, I thought.

My 35th birthday passed. Apart from receiving birthday gifts, absolutely nothing happened. I'm still alive and kicking, programming, speaking, writing, and designing products. Everything has become better.

Looking back, I found that many of my old friends who were passionate about programming and full of ideals about life have gone different ways: some have become technical gurus in their fields, busy giving talks, writing books, and preaching while building products; some run companies large or small while still writing code; some have designed software products used by tens of millions of people; some have transformed into pure managers, running organizations of thousands of people. They are all programmers.

Those who truly face the prospect of a miserable old age are people who have no interest in technology and products, who merely treat programming as a tool for making a living, and who cannot engage in lifelong learning. The opening lines are for these people, and I hope they can read this article before they turn 40.

The question of programmers changing careers is also a false proposition. No one's career is set in stone. Today you are deciding whether LVS should use IP tunneling or direct routing, and whether load scheduling should use weighted round robin or least connections; ten years later, what you need to do may be deciding which product features to add and reading users' consumer psychology. Time will drive you to keep choosing your own path.

If continuing to code can maximize your value, then go code. Too many profound and complex technologies require long-term accumulation and practice to simplify the complex and achieve masterful results. So speed ahead on the road to becoming a technical guru.

If designing products can maximize your value, then go design products. The modern world is no longer an era where "aesthetics and art" are completely unrelated to "electronic products and software." People pay more and more attention to product experience and artistic beauty. If you understand the beauty of a product, can estimate how long it will take to develop, and also understand some development details, think of how many programmers you could torture! Imagine how wonderful that scene is.

If running a company can maximize your value, then go start a business. Recruit comrades, serve partners, deliver products, and create a sky of your own.

If speaking... If consulting... If marketing... Clearly, the future I see for programmers holds infinite possibilities. And our biggest advantage is: these folks can even write code. That's really cool!

Of course, we programmers should not be too complacent. While working deeply in a certain field, don't forget to broaden your knowledge. If a person's field is too specialized, after a while you may find that your specialty has become outdated. If a person has a wide range of knowledge, combined with lifelong learning, your specialty can change with the times.

Finally, a few words for readers who are not programmers: if you have programmers around you, treat them well. If you don't understand technology, never tell a programmer "this is easy to implement." Give them small gifts often. When they're unhappy, treat them to Haidilao. Whether they work overtime or not, give them raises. Introduce girlfriends to those who don't have one. If they haven't subscribed to MacTalk, have them subscribe right away... You will be rewarded.

Many years later, when you happen to come across this article again, you might say, "Hmm, this old guy does have a point."

Source: IT Jianghu