11 ms·
Poll: How old are you?
Four years ago [1], two years ago [2], and today.
Tomorrow I'd love to poll on where in the world.
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039
[2]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588
FYI: for anyone in the 13-18ish category, if you are interested in a startup mentor (or a technical one w/ rails/node.js/meteor.js) I'm working with a few people at Stanford willing to take on mentees. Shoot me an email (hn@withoutfriction.com)
- acheron 13y agoMy birthday was last weekend and you set the categories so that I just moved up. Thanks. joints creak
- dasil003 13y agoWhoah, I'm about to make my third category transition while still working for the same startup.
- djKianoosh 13y agosomeone should close the older polls, no?
- tptacek 13y agoWe had one of these just three months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734
- mherdeg 13y agoAnd there was a great discussion about whether or not it was a good idea to let people vote twice.
- brechin 13y agoAnd plenty of discussion on how we can't trust their results any more From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5537023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5537023 The most significant result of this poll is that HN now seems to be past the point where we can rely on an honor system to prevent users from giving junk answers to polls. A few years ago we could. That's an unfortunate change.
- nswanberg 13y agoDid pg ever make good on his promise to embiggen the fonts of those responders who claimed they were over 80?
- pvnick 13y agoThere was an article on here yesterday that said something along the lines of "if you're older than 23 most startups won't even give you the time of day" or some tripe of the sort. I find that to be a negative, untrue stereotype, and it's nice to see the data back up my opinion.
- jypepin 13y agoyea it was in the article about why working in a big company http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/33111/7-Reasons-Why-You-Need-To-Work-For-A-Big-Company.aspx http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/33111/7-Reasons-Why-You...
- pvnick 13y agoYes, thank you, I didn't feel like digging around for it.
- tomphoolery 13y agoWhat an awfully misinformed article. :(
- Cookingboy 13y agoCare to elaborate? From my personal experience (currently working for Google and used to work for a YC startup, also worked for a 80 person small company and another silicon valley giant), that article is almost dead on. You really DO learn a lot when you have more smart people around you to learn from.
- dllthomas 13y agoIn what way does this data back up your opinion?
- pvnick 13y agoFor the following reasons: 1) assume that the HN readership satisfactorily correlates to the startup demographic at large 2) the majority of the respondants answered 26-30, as was also the case in the poll that tptacek referenced elsewhere in this thread 3) the longtail is heavily skewed towards the older folks, rather than towards the younger side
- jpdoctor 13y agoGod these types of polls make me feel like a geezer. Just in case any of you whippersnappers are wondering what it feels like to start hacking in your teens and continue (in one form or another) to be hacking into your late 40s: It is pretty much the same after the first cup of coffee in the morning. Where it differs is the lull in the afternoon makes me want to nap. (So I do.) The drag is that until I look in the mirror? I'd tell you I'm 20-something, and I have to genuinely remind myself that I'm pushing 50.
- djbender 13y agoAge is only a number.
- gilrain 13y agoAnd an approximate measure of the gradual deterioration of your body.
- rollo_tommasi 13y agoAnd, sadly, the sharper edges of the mind...
- diydsp 13y ago... and, happily, the accumulation of wisdom to direct the remaining sharpness ...
- fluidcruft 13y agoPerhaps sharpness impairs wisdom.
- talles 13y agoSo, again, just a number :)
- 13y ago
- DanBC 13y agoIt's interesting to read the poll results alongside this link (posted earlier to HN) (http://blog.argteam.com/coding/a-history-of-film-in-wikipedia/ http://blog.argteam.com/coding/a-history-of-film-in-wikipedi...)
- smokinjoe 13y agoJust turned 30 today and I don't even get to move up to a new selection.
- krapp 13y agoI just turned 36 and I get shoved into a new demographic box for almost everything age-related on the net, now. It's very depressing, only a couple of boxes left until the pine one...
- DanielBMarkham 13y agoSo, at the time I looked, roughly 500 20-something punks, and roughly 50 of us 40-something geezers. Dang, odds are that nobody I meet in the old folk's home is going to know anything at all about functional programming or Lean Startups.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- hlm 13y ago65 and still hacking ;)
- ferdo 13y agoI'm so old I still reckon in baud.
- timothybone 13y agoI'm still young so I can't say for sure, but I reckon the brain's baud rate peaks in a similar fashion as the heart's peak BPM. That being said, I think more efficient cycle clocking, a.k.a wisdom, makes up the difference.
- ianstallings 13y agoI'm about 220 lbs old. I started at 180 lbs!
- FrankenPC 13y agoI hear that! 240 lbs old and 75% more gray.
- ianstallings 13y agoFor a second I thought you said gravy. Either way, yes!
- bougiefever 13y agoI'm so old I use a combination of lit and unlit candles to represent my age in binary on my birthday cake so I don't set off the smoke alarm.
- edw519 13y ago58, writing more code, having more fun, reaching more people, & making more $ than ever, all of which still seem limitless: edw519's Hacker Quality of Life | ?? | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | ***** ------------------------------- 10 20 30 40 50 60
- rjh29 13y agoI know you are well respected around here, but your ability to sound like a douche seems limitless too.
- aaronblohowiak 13y agoAs someone who fears ageism and my role as a hacker in light of the aging process, I am taking his post to be a beacon of light and hope, not anything resembling a 'douche'.
- zallarak 13y agoTrust me, anyone who perpetuates ageism is somewhat misled. A diversity in the ages of employees is probably the ideal situation, because I can think of advantages/disadvantages the presence of a certain each age group brings to a team. On the other hand, if you find yourself losing energy/physical fitness and your abilities, its your prerogative to remedy that.
- davidcuddeback 13y agoI'm a younger (~30) engineer who's enjoyed working with a few older engineers. I'd be interested in hearing more about what you perceive to be the relative advantages/disadvantages of each age group.
- sillysaurus 13y ago
- Enquiry 13y agoPeople aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.
- dkulchenko 13y agoI was 15 when I stumbled on HN (turning 18 today). Learned about it through YC and its startups (Heroku in particular). Google "startups" and you tend to end up on a YC page pretty fast, and on HN soon after.
- eksith 13y agoHappy Birthday! I came across HN while searching for code examples for forums (strangely enough). This was when Digg was still relevant, but someone suggested looking to alternatives for link sharing and HN came up in the conversation. I lurked around for a long time and then finally joined.
- abritishguy 13y agoI'm 18 but I can't really answer that, I stumbled across it a while back and now it is my 6th most visited site. I think an article on a site was using hacker news for discussion rather than having a comments thread below it, although I can't remember if this was my first exposure or not.
- paramsingh 13y agoI got linked here through reddit.
- alexvr 13y agoI stumbled upon Feross Aboukhadijeh, and I think he mentioned HN on Twitter or something. It was in a negative context, as in, "Stop constantly checking Hacker News and actually do stuff," and I now understand why. Glad I found it, though!
- xtc 13y ago19 here. I began reading a few of pg's most popular essays when I was 17 then found out about Y Combinator and just dug around a little. Now I'm here.
- cik 13y agoWow, so I finally registered for HN, just to be able to comment on this one. And man, I'm feeling old at 33. I've having been developing professionally since 18. I took a weird route, spending one year at uni (17), then working full time, and getting my degrees at night before it was fashionable to do so. In ~15 years, I've had the gamut - developer to multi-geo team manager, with ownership of 9 datacenters. I vastly prefer software. I'll echo edw519 there - quality of life increases dramatically once you get out of your 20's. The longer you're in it and learning, the more value you have. You've seen more, been around, and pick up new things faster - because they look like combinations of things you've seen before. Curve balls no longer freak you out, they're exciting. tl;dr Getting older is actually awesome.
- lewisflude 13y agoI've been working with startups since I was about 17 (20 now). At first I felt like a bit of a novelty, but now I feel like just a regular dude.
- centrinoblue 13y agoI'm 44 and have been writing web apps since the late '90s. As a UI architect now my JavaScript / front-end skills are in very high demand and I am writing by far the best code I have ever written. A couple of years ago I faced a cross road in my career to either go into mgmt (director of UX) or commit to development. I chose to remain on the technical path and haven't regretted it one bit. I haven't experienced any overt ageism but I do feel I need to keep my skills at the cutting edge to stay on top like a cagey vet. Looking forward (and in the mirror) I realize the clock is ticking wrt promotions and salary so I'm working on a couple of side project/apps/start-up ideas with the idea that eventually I will be able to leave the mon-fri corporate world behind once and for all.
- alexvr 13y agoAt what age would you say you were smartest, if you have noticed any fluctuation? I hear you mental power peaks at about 22 and begins to decline after 26, but that's pretty depressing, and I don't want to believe it, so if you have experience to counter or confirm this, please share. If you have noticed any decline in "fluid intelligence," is it negligible? Does your wisdom and experience outweigh any mental decline in real-life situations? How does age affect creativity? Thank you, wise elders.
- mindcrime 13y agoAt what age would you say you were smartest Right now (3 days shy of 40). if you have noticed any fluctuation? I hear you mental power peaks at about 22 and begins to decline after 26, but that's pretty depressing, and I don't want to believe it, so if you have experience to counter or confirm this, please share. I don't really buy it. Subjectively I don't feel anything that makes me feel less smart or less capable than when I was 22. And given the huge advantage in accumulated knowledge and experience I have now, I feel FAR more capable than my 22 year old self, or my 30 year old self, or even my 35 year old self. Does your wisdom and experience outweigh any mental decline in real-life situations? I would say "yes". If my cognitive abilities have declined at all, I think the increase in knowledge and experience far more than compensates for that. How does age affect creativity? I think I'm more creative right now than at any other stage of my life.
- chubot 13y agoThe good thing is that software isn't math or music. In those fields you might peak at 26. Software is mathematical but it also requires a lot of judgement and experience. Consider that Guido van Rossum didn't even START working on Python (most popular language on HN) until age 35. From what I can see 30's and 40's is a sweet spot for a lot of programmers. It seems like a lot of startup founders are young, but I think a lot of the guys actually making systems work have been around the block a few more times.
- stephencanon 13y ago> In those fields you might peak at 26. This is oft-repeated, but I’ve never seen any actual evidence to support it. I know plenty of mathematicians who didn’t start doing their best work until they were in their 40s, and musicians who have only gotten better well into their 60s.
- mindcrime 13y agoUgh. I turn 40 in 3 days. Thanks for the reminder. :-( All joking aside, it isn't so bad. EDW's chart above is pretty accurate in some ways. Certainly life doesn't end at 40(ish)... In my case, the main issues are more joint pain, more random stiffness (after long car rides or something, for example) and other minor physical issues. Well, that and adult-onset (type 2) diabetes. But that's managed with oral medication, diet and exercise, and isn't exactly the end of the world (although I was pretty unhappy the day I was diagnosed).
- mililani 13y agoI turn 40 in a few months. And time is going by faster as I get older.
- future_grad 13y agoWhat do you do?
- mililani 13y agoWhat do you mean? For a living?
- earljwagner 13y agoI'm grappling with this myself. It appears the answer is to always be doing new things. "novel experiences seem to slow time perception down. Repetition of events seems to make them go faster." from "Why Time Flies As You Age" - http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201212/why-time-flies-you-age http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/...
- sliverstorm 13y agotime is going by faster as I get older I've noticed that too, and it terrifies me.
- andyhmltn 13y agoI believe that's because you have more time behind you. If you're 5 years old a year is a fifth of your life. But if you're 50 it's a fiftieth so it seems a lot less.
- YZF 13y agoThis curve will probably have good correlation to the penetration of personal computers and the Internet when people are teenagers. The .com boom in the early 2000's (edit- ~'97-'00) brought a lot of new people into the industry and that's going to be reflected (those people are now in their early thirties) and the people in their 20's are those that got exposed to technology as a result of the .com boom.
- Eduard 13y agoI'm two month older since the last age poll.
- tambourine_man 13y agoDamn, 31 today. Can't click the most popular 26-30 option anymore.
- jorgeleo 13y agoIf the numbers are true (which I doubt), then the majority is on their 20s... well, that explains a few things.
- vanwilder77 13y agonext year, I ll be moving up to click the second most popular option! (Btw, I m 20)
- rogerthis 13y agoOficially I'm 36. Phisically I'm 73. Mentally 51. Hackerly, trying to get out of school.
- GoofballJones 13y ago51 here. Never really learned how to code, though I always wanted to. I fooled around with AREXX on the Amiga and Python later on, but that's about it.
- thechief35 13y agoIt's interesting to see that in all three polls, after the 30 mark, the number decreases significantly. Why is that?
- moheeb 13y agoI think that is mostly because you would have had to have been an early adopter to get in before that age. 30+ is BBSs, modems...no real internet at that point.
- spydum 13y agoIt isn't that after 30 it drops off, its that people under 30 grew up with computing as part of mainstream culture, so you have an explosion of professionals.
- ThomPete 13y agoA friend of my parents is nearing 70. In his younger years he reversed engineered the apple2 and excels in music, painting and and of course hacking like there is no tomorrow. He can literally build anything he wants to. He is an expert in assembler and and a couple of higher level languages, but it is his assembler skills that have always amazed me because he would always produce some crazy hardware for his many passions. And he had many. This was besides running a successful bank security company. He is a watch geek and is building this in half size from scratch litterally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Olsen's_World_Clock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Olsen's_World_Clock One of the wrenches is 400 years to resolve around it's own axis. Here is some of that work. http://000fff.org/watches/523223_10150679399796150_1501393655_n.jpg http://000fff.org/watches/523223_10150679399796150_150139365... And here are some more of his work: http://000fff.org/watches/134363_468677071149_7733152_o.jpg http://000fff.org/watches/134363_468677071149_7733152_o.jpg http://000fff.org/watches/135126_468676956149_1839796_o.jpg http://000fff.org/watches/135126_468676956149_1839796_o.jpg http://000fff.org/watches/169423_468677241149_6736953_o.jpg http://000fff.org/watches/169423_468677241149_6736953_o.jpg He also designed this small boat harbour for the local area he lives in https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=bryggen%2C+copenhagen&data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d12.567923!3d55.660237!2m2!1f208.06!2f90!4f75!2m4!1e1!2m2!1sqS9jU51zG7ooqRFEiV-RRA!2e0!4m10!1m9!4m8!1m3!1d600449!2d-73.979681!3d40.6974881!3m2!1i2023!2i1191!4f13.1&fid=5 https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=bryggen%2C+copenhagen... because he bought a boat. I somehow wonder how many Da Vinci's are out there with these kind skills. I can't even begin to think who they manage. Would be cool to do a series of some of these holder hackers.
- williamle8300 13y agoI'm 28!
- shreeshga 13y agoi am pushing 30 but I look barely 22. Needless to say, everyone i meet assumes that i am younger to them.
- laxk 13y agochart: http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chxl=0:|00-10|11-15|16-20|21-25|26-30|31-35|36-40|41-45|46-50|51-55|56-60|60-%E2%88%9E&chxs=0,676767,12.5,0,lt,676767&chxtc=0,2&chxt=y&chbh=19&chs=430x320&cht=bhs&chco=FF8700&chds=0,1159&chd=t:21,24,50,79,181,348,731,1159,1066,267,21,33&chma=50,10,100,10&chtt=HN%3A+How+old+are+you%3F+(2013) http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chxl=0:|00-10|11-15|16-20|...
- zachlatta 13y agoI'd love it if some of the teenagers here could send me an email at zchlatta (at) gmail.com. I'm looking to put together some sort of group so we can meet some other young people like ourselves.
- yumraj 13y agoI've always wondered what is the objective of the poster behind these poles. Are you trying to figure out if you are too young for something, if yes, then the answer is No you're not too young. Are you trying to figure out if you are too old for something, then the answer is No, you're not too old. If you're trying to figure out if you should fund someone, hire someone, have any sort of relationship with someone (regardless of the type of relationship, personal or business) based on some data, than I feel sad for you. Did I miss anything?
- 3pt14159 13y agoBesides general interest, I've noticed that every year these ages get a little bit older. I'm starting to think that this isn't coincidental. I think us Gen-Yers that hacked on QBASIC had the best head start.
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago1996 born here (17yo), but my first computers were chucked-out old ones, so I grew up on DOS, Win3.1 and 9x and QBASIC.
- 3pt14159 13y agoYeah, I'm seriously considering starting my (yet-to-be-conceived) children on a CLI computer unless there is something more awesome in 2021 or something.
- runjake 13y agoThus far: 0-10 |o 11-15 |. 16-20 |OOO 21-25 |OOOOOOOOOOO 26-30 |OOOOOOOOOOOOO 31-35 |OOOOOOOO 36-40 |OOOO 41-45 |OO 46-50 |O 51-55 |O 56-60 |o 61+ |o
- rdl 13y agoI don't really feel a huge change between 24 and 34. That may be because I don't like children, so the normal get married have kids thing isn't happening. I guess 34-60 or so is roughly the same then as well, except maybe with more medical issues, hopefully tempered by advances in medical science and increasing personal wealth. Most age discrimination seems to be more birth year discrimination. I don't think 34 year olds now are treated as the incompetents that we treated 34 year olds in 1999, because back then, there really were not as many 34 year olds with Internet/tech/etc experience. (Obviously some, who are now largely the not accomplished people, but it was a small percentage of the population.)
- wil421 13y agoJust got graduated and got a job in the software industry. Learned a lot from reading hacker news articles. Thanks HN
- ogwyther 13y ago782614065 seconds at the time of writing.
- jebblue 13y agoDang, I only have 3 age ranges left until kaput.
- ausjke 13y agoI'm 45, each time this kind of voting scares me, I'm indeed too old for this IT thing, but what else can I do? what are those 40s/50s doing? all managers/bosses? or out of work? I'm curious.
- GnarfGnarf 13y agoI'm 65, been programming since 1965. Successfully escaped management. I've never been bored, always having a great time. Just a few months ago I learned DirectX and wrote a 3D app. There are only a few jobs that beat programming (acting, jet pilot), but they're harder to get.
- seldo 13y ago...what the hell are all these 10-and-under kids doing here?
- dustyreagan 13y agoSkewing the data! ;)
- xijuan 13y agohahaha. I posted this question few months ago. Here is the result of my poll: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734
- granttimmerman 13y agoAn ASCII histogram of HN users ages. Average = ~27 Inspiration cred: mixmax's post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=517039) 0-10 - 11-15 - 16-20 --------- 21-25 -------------------------------- 26-30 -------------------------------------- 31-35 ------------------------ 36-40 ----------- 41-45 ------ 46-50 --- 51-55 - 56-60 - 61+ -
- bbraasch 13y ago65. started programming when I was 20 years old.
- shurcooL 13y agoDidn't we have one of these recently? I remember pg commenting how HN can no longer use the honour system as there were too many 0-10 and 61+ entries. pg joked he'd make the fonts larger to be more easily seen. There's no way that was 2 years ago, was it?! :O
- arc_of_descent 13y agoI turn 36 in 3 weeks. Nothing much has changed except health issues. I just took a full medical test yesterday (liver, kidney, diabetes, etc.) and turns out I'm quite healthy. I exercise regularly. But not mentally. I've suffered from alcohol addiction since the past 4 years. I've been diagnosed with soft bipolar disorder and acute social anxiety. Occupational hazards I guess. :) So, people who are below 30, watch your health! That's all you have left as you get older.
- nixpulvis 13y agoBest thing is, no matter how many years I live past my age now (20) I'll still never live a day without learning something new. Today it was `termios` tomorrow who knows. It's a life of adventure and discovery.
- spinachthrow 13y ago19 here, largely ignorant
- boneheadmed 13y ago40. Coding as a very enjoyable hobby since around age 9 on our Apple IIe. Anyone have advice on how to turn that into part time $ ?
- MojoJolo 13y agoIt depends where you are. I'm currently 21 here, but I think I'm still 20 in the other side of the world. :)
- dotcoma 13y ago112
- pranavrc 13y agoHistogram so far: http://quickhist.onloop.net/0-10=59,11-15=39,16-20=512,21-25=1842,26-30=2171,31-35=1381,36-40=659,41-45=325,46-50=139,51-55=79,56-60=40,61+=43/Hacker%20News%20Poll%20of%20Ages%20-%20July%20%2713 http://quickhist.onloop.net/0-10=59,11-15=39,16-20=512,21-25...
- tunnuz 13y agoI have always been in the most crowded bucket, so I guess we're aging together HN :)
- apa-sl 13y agoWaiting for the 'where in the world' poll, that might be interesting :-)
- gearoidoc 13y agoI'm scared that I had to go down through the answers so much in order to find my age bracket. Getting old!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- apagade 13y agoWhats the use of this polling? Is this applicable any how in real life?
- andyhmltn 13y ago19 on the 2nd of August, so just a nipper!
- acesubido 13y agoAlways a reminder to myself: Linus started Linux at 21, Martin Odersky started designing Scala at around 46, likewise James Gosling fathered Java at around 39, Joel Spolsky founded Fog Creek around 35, Jack Dorsey founded Twitter around 30. The measurement of time is a man-made system, it does not matter if you're 20 or 65. Comparing yourself with amazing people and their achievements and age will gain you nothing but discontent. I'm 26, I'm excited with what I'm living with right now and what I'll be taking on in the years to come.
- dano414 13y agoA few things I found with getting older; 1. Fear of death actually lessens? At least with me. In my twenties, I was a walking Woody Allen with a brain tumor. 2. If my sex drive was like it's been lately; I might be a billionaire? I spent a lot of time chasing tail. 3. Anxiety will lessen as you age. You will probally just stop drinking in your late 40's-- just because you don't need the effect anymore. 4. You will lose a lot of good friends, if like me, you enjoyed people older than you. A therapist once told me to make friends with younger people; they will outlast you. I though it was selfish at the time, but understand now. 5. Treat your mother, or father well. They most likely were you only Cheerleaders in life. 6. Success has many heads. Meaning some of you might mike a fortune. Some might find something they truely love doing in life. And, some are blessed with good genes--yes, good looking people, many times, are treated well. 7. Your interest will vastly change as you age, at least for me. I hated computers when I was younger. I loved philosophy and art. 8. It really goes by so quick it's sad. I really mean that. Don't spend your life in an office, or anywhere if you are just waiting until retirement. Most guys die in retirement, only after collecting a few pension checks. Get used to living on the cheap, if you feel you just don't like the 9-5 B.S.. The chicks that will stay with a underemployed guy, truely love you. 9. I never thought I would get old, but it happens. 10. In terms of health-- eat less. That's all I can say. Forget about working out all the time-- joint damage. Vitamins--might make things worse? Try to get enough sleep. And moderation in drugs and alcohol. 11. Stay humble, if you ever were? Don't ever rule out a nervous breakdown. Meaning, do think you're Superman. 12. If you ever break out of middle class-- really give back. Most every rich guy I ever met, had a rich parent.
- Andrew_Quentin 13y ago62 people are 0-10!?
- frankcaron 13y agoNeat to see how much more traffic HN has been getting over the years and yet how the average age seems to be creeping up. Oldmanysiteis?