英文原文：Five Pervasive Myths About Older Software Developers
I just passed my 40th birthday recently, and a friend joked to me "Hey, you're too old to be a programmer!" I laughed in agreement, but I felt it. Ageism is commonplace in our industry. COBOL folks had this problem years ago, and with the popularity and rise of Java, those of us who write Java programs laugh at the code they leave behind and their stubbornness in the face of new technologies.
The same thing is coming to my head now. Maybe you too. Even if not yet, it will be your turn soon. Can you still laugh now? Yes, I think so.
Source: CRE Taulbee Survey, 2007-2008, published May 9
Annotation: Taulbee Survey: CRA Computer Research Organization surveys the employment, work and salary of employees in the North American computer industry (computer science CS, computer engineering CE), and the survey is classified according to degree, gender, etc. Information on previous years can be found on the CRA website .
From: CRE Taulbee Report
Our industry is ageist in many ways. We are passionate about hot new technologies, learn new things at a speed that we have never heard of, work like crazy, and bring products to market. These are always considered young people in our industry. I said younger workers would be cheaper, right? Really much cheaper. But the Computing Degree Trends Survey does not support that our managers can always have plenty of cheap workers at their disposal. In fact, all the data points to a conclusion: For almost 10 years, the number of students studying computer science (CS) has declined slightly or remained the same as in previous years. Even as Jeff Atwood said, there are fewer options for hiring programmers. Your next project may need to be hired and outsourcing faces backlash, Egon, who do you turn to for help?
If you think you can avoid the "gray matter" problems of software development, think again. There are some ingrained misinformation about programming veterans in the IT industry, inexplicably putting older, experienced workers at a disadvantage in the industry. Most of these myths are nonsense, saying that everyone after 40 is somehow stupid because they are too old. Let's break down the truth of these misinformation one by one.
Myth 1: Older programmers charge more than newbies, so younger developers are more popular.
Fact: Experienced developers are labeled "expensive" because employee salaries are always the biggest expense in any software company. In fact, being young means cheap. But while young but inexperienced developers can save you some budget, if you only have young people on your team, you'll pay more in the long run. Young developers haven't experienced failure. They haven't even had enough time to experience failure. Guess whose money they'll use for teaching fees? yours. How much will it cost you to miss deadlines and deliver unfinished projects? Please think again.
It is true that older programmers are paid more than younger people. But where exactly did your extra money go? An experienced software developer, you pay for the experience and lessons he has learned from past project development. These are the expensive tuition fees you need to pay while you are his manager. But if you hire an experienced worker, you won't repeat the mistakes that are often made during project management and software development. This means that at the end of the year you will get good reviews for hiring people who can do things.
Myth 2: Older programmers are limited by their pre-existing knowledge and are less flexible and less able to learn new technologies than younger developers.
Fact: In fact, it is because of their past experience that older programmers are able to move to new technologies, frameworks, and systems at a deeper level. For example, if you understand GUI frameworks written in C/C++, you will have concepts of message passing, event handling, and MVC pattern, which can help you separate the presentation layer from the underlying logic when designing the system.
当你第一次接触GUI框架的时候，除了学习代码的文法，你还需要掌握示例以及相关的代码库，不仅如此，与之相关的所有概念也都需要了解。当第二次、第三次或者以后的更多次实现GUI框架时，你会发现在代码文法之外更深的地方它们有着相似之处。你甚至可能会注意到，新的GUI框架会克服以前你花费很大力气才能解决的潜在限制。这些领悟会以你不能直接衡量的方式提高生产率。
误传3：年长程序员有家庭以及其他因素的影响，因此不能承担艰苦的软件开发任务（解读：长时间、艰苦地工作），而年轻人没有这些负担。
事实： 公平地讲，有经验的软件开发人员较少会长时间、艰苦地工作，因为他们从实践（失败）中学到连续数月每周工作80个小时最终会到达生产率的极限。这种情况会让你精疲力尽，我敢打赌任何曾经历过这种情况的人都不想再尝试。即使有这样的倾向，所谓的“家庭负担”是不存在的。
有经验的高效的软件工程师是无情的时间管理者，那些已经有家庭的工程师会更积极地在分配的时间内完成工作。他们也许会参加舞会或者足球赛，但是他们会把这些时间安排在业余时间，在每个礼拜的40个小时工作中他们会高度专注在自己的工作上。已经成家的优秀软件工程师必须高效地管理自己的私人时间，否则他们很快就会被蜂拥而来的工作埋掉。
传说4：年长程序员不如年轻人思路敏捷。
事实：时光的确会对大脑产生影响，有很多证据显示年长的工人在思考速度上会稍逊一筹。但是思路敏捷只是判断标准的一部分。思考得更快并不总是代表考虑得更好。对于判断力情况又是如何呢？有句老话：好的判断来自经验，而经验则是从错误的判断得来。
想想他们具备比年轻人更多的见识、完成的工作以及经历的成功和失败，就知道以思维不再敏捷作为不雇佣年长的软件工程师是一个糟糕的借口。有经验的开发人员可以从大量的项目中汲取经验来为今天的项目避免错误的决定。年轻的开发人员有很多重要的新点子，但是却没有经过测试和验证。同时具备这两个方面会给你的团队带来巨大的价值。
误传5：年长程序员对于工作感到厌倦并且不屑一顾，因此在公司不如年轻人受欢迎。年轻的开发人员比他们对工作更有热情。
事实：说这些话的人可能不喜欢自己的观点被别人批评，批评他们的人已经在这个行业里面久经考验，一次又一次看到愚蠢的决定被付诸行动。有经验的软件开发人员会很早就发现问题。对于你所说的这个产品不会受到市场欢迎这样的说法，他们不会买帐。因为他们与客户打了多年的交道，并且知道你这么说只是为了不在将来某个时候被公司解雇。他们不会因为客户希望软件下个月交货就接受经理每周工作80个小时的要求。他们会告诉你要实现与客户定好的特性还需要3个多月。
年轻的开发人员并不经常遇到那样的情形，因此，对糟糕的管理习惯也没有什么抵抗力。管理者在这种情况下需要的只是天真的新手。如果你希望拥有一个伟大的团队和伟大的产品，那么有可以在你作出错误决定的时候能够提醒你的人，会为你一次又一次地避免遭受损失。但这得在你有勇气承认自己并不是无所不知的前提下才会发生。
热情会逐渐散去，所以你不能说是年纪抑制了热情。如果事实真是如此，Donald Knuth, Ward Cunningham, Bill Joy, Bill Gates 以及其他数以百计的突破40岁魔咒的人就应该因为年纪的关系而对软件行业不再有兴趣。但是他们不是。热情就是热情。如果在你40岁的时候具有热情，你还是可以爱上你所在的领域。这种热爱不是一夜情。年轻的开发人员仍然能够以短暂的热情开始他们的事业，但是如果面对困难和挑战的时候短暂的热情会很快消退。
最后，请让我澄清几件事：年轻不都是坏事，年长也不都是好事。最重要的是，一个人如果编程能力不行，那么无论年纪大小都不会被录用。保持团队年龄和经验的多样性。有差异存在，就能学习和进步。但是如果你是需要雇人的老板，请不要马上把坐在你对面有白头发的兄弟拒掉。忘掉你对年龄的偏见，看看他们能否打动你。
有一天那位兄弟（姐妹）可能就是你。
英文原文：Dave Rodenbaugh 编译：伯乐在线 – 唐尤华