>Older developers of HN, what are your experiences?
Over 40 here. The most difficult part is human interaction. Youngsters are obviously well behind their own hype and have their right to try. Mature folks like me take things with a grain of salt and acknowledge hard work is only a part of the picture, often not the most important. From a technical point of view, the headless chickens thing is also common but, again, youngsters have their right to believe they are Einstein, Feynman or Jobs.
The thing about being 40+ is you really start to see through bullshit. I remember working for one company that was selling a product customers simply did not want. I tried explaining this to the founders, and suggested alternatives, but got branded "not a team player" for not drinking the Kool-Aid. So it is important to work for companies that are actually doing something useful, otherwise you are going to have a hard time concealing your skepticism.
Over 40 here. The most difficult part is human interaction. Youngsters are obviously well behind their own hype and have their right to try. Mature folks like me take things with a grain of salt and acknowledge hard work is only a part of the picture, often not the most important. From a technical point of view, the headless chickens thing is also common but, again, youngsters have their right to believe they are Einstein, Feynman or Jobs.