The Aging Programmer
Kate Gregory
[email protected]
Disclaimer
• Advice that worked for me might not work for others
• People who have left an industry aren’t here to say “that doesn’t
work for me”
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 2
Not Just My Experience
• I did a survey
• I found studies and papers
• I talked to people including people who have left
• Still, this advice might not work for you
• Use your judgement
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 3
“But I’m young!
What does this
have to do with
me?” Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 4
“If you’re not getting
older, you’re dead.”
—Tom Petty
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 5
We Don’t All Get To Be Old Programmers
• Some people just die
• Presumably you’d like to prevent that
• And we don’t all keep programming as we age
• Some people have to retire
• When they don’t want to – there’s nothing wrong with choosing to retire
• Some people change industries
• This isn’t always bad
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 6
Survey Results
• For their bodies, most people were concerned about
• Eyesight
• Pain and stiffness
• Stamina
• For their minds, most people were
concerned about
• Motivation
• Cynicism
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 7
Body Issues
• Not all problems with your body are really problems with your
body
• People discriminate against you when you use a mobility aid
• Mobility problem or environment problem?
• Can’t drive at night, might have to retire
• Eye problem or environment problem?
• No strength for multiple flights of stairs to meeting rooms, bathroom,
coffee etc,
• You problem (knees, ankles, cardio vascular fitness) or environment problem?
• Are you too old for this work, or just for this workplace?
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 8
Eyes
• Get them checked
• Getting shorter sighted as you age is totally normal
• Presbyopia
• Use “cheaters” or “readers” at first
• Get glasses so you can keep driving
• It’s normal to have different glasses for different tasks
• Bonus:
• Your mystery headaches may disappear
• You may have less confusion caused by not quite following
what you’re trying to read
• You can get more code on the screen again 9
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto
Night Driving
• Can become a problem in your 50s
• Yellow glasses and other gimmicks do not work
• Some is caused by cataracts so will get better when they are fixed
• Avoid contrast changes
• Lit screens in the car are the worst
• Choose your car carefully
• Keep your glasses windshield etc spotless
• Vitamin A
• Think about shorter office time so you go home in the light
• Think about a post-driving life and how you would still do things
• May need to move eventually
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 10
Exercise Helps Your Body and Brain
• Aches and Pains
• Stamina
• Ability to reach things, bend down get up
• Immune system
• Mood
• Learning and remembering
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 11
“Those who think they have
no time for bodily exercise
will sooner or later have to
find time for illness.”
—Edward Stanley (1826-1893)
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 12
Not All Exercise Is The Same
• Exercise serves different purposes and not all exercises give you
all benefits
• Strength
• Stamina
• Flexibility & Balance
• Visible Muscles
• Weight Loss
• Training or practice for a skill or activity
• Choose what exercise you do to achieve your overall goals
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 13
Strength
• Do a small number of hard things, not to failure but close
• Eg 10 pushups when you feel you couldn’t do 11
• 60 second plank when you feel you couldn’t do 70
• 3 times a day, just a minute or two, you will get stronger
• Learn how to make exercises easier and harder
• Angles are the key
• Strength enables independence
• Carrying something with one hand means the other is free
• People with more muscles have stronger immune systems
• Weight bearing exercises strengthen your bones
• Stronger people live longer
• Older people with weak hand grip were 50% more likely to die
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 14
Stamina
• Do something that makes you a little out of breath
• 20 minutes a day or more
• But any amount helps
• Sustained aerobic exercise increases adult neurogenesis
• Moderate exercise in midlife or late life reduced odds of having mild
cognitive impairment
• Physical exercise (both aerobic and resistance exercise) improved
cognitive function in the over 50s, regardless of the cognitive status of
participants
• Messengers like myokines, dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin
make us feel good and improve our ability to learn
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 15
Flexibility and Balance
• Needs deliberate exercising
• Not just activities that happen to be “good exercise”
• Lay the groundwork now
• You will need this in your 70s and 80s
• To reach the top or bottom shelf
• To catch yourself when you trip
• To avoid strains and injuries
• Stretching exercises are pleasant
• Great way to start your day
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 16
Exercising for Retirement
• Do you dreams of hobbies or trips you’ll do when you retire?
• Do they require fitness?
• Bike tour of Tuscany
• Maintaining a huge garden
• Walking a famous trail
• Sail across an ocean
• If you grind your body into dust working to earn that retirement,
• You may not have the physicality to do that thing
• Consider doing smaller versions of the thing now
• Will keep you in shape for it
• Will ensure you at least get a little bit of it
• Extended vacations, unpaid leaves, gaps between contracts
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 17
Wrists
• Don’t sleep with your wrists curled
• Consider a brace
• Ration your keystrokes
• Try different mice & keyboards
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 18
Back to Those Aches and Pains
• Getting older can hurt
• Literally and metaphorically
• For literal pain, that’s what painkillers are for
• Naproxen (anti inflammatory) associated with aging better
• Longer term, exercise to reduce joint and muscle pain by strengthening
muscles and increasing flexibility
• Consider your equipment (chairs, desks, shoes) and replace things
that cause you pain. Invest in yourself.
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 19
Hearing
• Mild hearing loss can cause:
• Not following group conversations and just letting the others talk
• Feeling confused because you missed something but don’t want to ask
• Avoiding places where there will be competing noises
• Get your hearing checked
• Can’t regain lost hearing
• Can wear hearing aids
• Prevention is simple: avoid really loud noises
• Use earplugs when you can’t avoid them
• Keep your headphones at a sensible volume
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 20
Health
• Infections and injuries may not worry you now
• But they are what will probably kill you
• Falling especially is the beginning of the end for older people
• People with more muscles are less likely to fall hard
• And have stronger immune systems
• Prevention habits start now, then persist
• Footwear for the occasion
• Don’t be embarrassed to use railings or slow down
• Vaccinations (not just for babies!)
• Mask when you’re sick, and in crowds
• Wash your hands a lot
• Regular checkups and screenings for other things that may be
underway
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 22
Menopause
• Will happen to half of us
• Starts in 40s or 50s
• Can last a long time
• Is not something to tease someone about
• Don’t have policies that make it harder
• Dress codes
• Rigid hours (some people get insomnia and other sleep issues)
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 23
Health Habits
• Don’t smoke
• Wear sunscreen (and hats)
• Drink alcohol in moderation if at all
• Drink plenty of water
• But don’t count litres or set alarms
• Eat your veggies (and fruit!)
• Vitamin C, but more importantly fibre
• Avoid “ultra processed” foods
• Don’t overwork
• Try not to obsess on anything
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 24
Other People
Kate Gregory @gregcons
25
CppNorth 2024, Toronto
Other People
• Age discrimination is real
• “they assume I can’t learn”
• Pressure to move to management
• “hiring process stopped once they
saw grey hair”
• “you wouldn’t be a culture fit”
• For women, it can be worse
• Men get to be “distinguished” and
“experienced” some times
• More of an issue in a corporate job
• Some companies have technical
ladders
• Consulting is a popular option
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 26
What If You are “Other People”?
• Your attitude towards old people can affect your own old
age
• People who believed negative stereotypes about old age in
their younger years had a much greater chance of having a
cardiovascular event, such as a stroke or congestive heart
failure, decades later
• Believing pessimistic concepts of old age results in a 50 per
cent greater chance of being hospitalized in later life compared
with people who think positively about it
• Learning about aging, and working towards a happy and
healthy old age, can be a self fulfilling prophecy
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 34
Brain and mind issues
• For most people these are scarier than the body changes
• We make our livings with our minds
• Losing that capacity is terrifying
• But it’s not inevitable
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 35
Short term memory, working set
• Make sure your issues aren’t actually vision, hearing, or lack of sleep
• Habit and routine
• A place for everything, and everything in its place
• Use technology – scripts, alarms, appointments
• Checklists and process
• But not “simple 27 step” procedures you have to keep in your head
• Don’t rely on multi-tasking so much
• Focus on one thing if that’s what it takes
• Understand when you’ve stopped paying attention to the first thing, and fix that
• Learn coping techniques from ADHD and others
• Tried and trusted ways of helping you achieve things your brain is fighting you on
• Do brain games help?
• Sadly, no
• But learning you enjoy does
• And so does reading for joy
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 36
Keeping up with constant “new stuff”
• You can learn it if you want to
• If you don’t, that’s a different issue
• By now you’ve learned how to learn
• You can connect new stuff to old stuff
• Is your identity tied to the old stuff?
• Embrace change
• Even with the same tools, there are new ways of thinking
• Your work identity is what you do, not what you do it with
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 37
Moods
• Grumpiness, Impatience, Cynicism, Distractibility
• These are not inevitable
• If you’re sweet and generous now, you’ll be a sweet old person
• If your planning and preparation ensures your needs are met,
you’ll be able to be warm and generous
• If you’re backstabbing selfish and greedy now, you probably won’t get
nicer
• Unless you actively work on it starting now
• Your personality generally intensifies as you age
• Don’t expect it to “flip”
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 38
Being Calm, Peaceful, and Happy
• Take control of your future
• Minimize chronic pain
• Be kind
• To others, and to yourself
• What about Yoga, Tai Chi, time in nature, taking up art?
• You can, if it appeals to you
• As you get older you have the time and money
• But you don’t have to
• Find what makes you happy
• This is your aging process
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 39
Motivation to work
• Can’t be bothered
• To learn new things
• To start doing stuff the new way
• To do yet another of those projects
• OK, so what do you like to do?
• Do that
• It’s ok to be the (expensive) last one left who knows that thing
• You don’t have to become a manager
• If this place has no technical ladder, others do
• You can freelance
• You can volunteer and set your own terms
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 40
Joy, Play, and Love
• Don’t just “take time” for joy and play
• Experience them in your everyday life
• Maybe you’re bored because you’re missing enjoyment that others see
• “Love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life”
• Different from doing what you love
• Can you tap into a love-based reason for doing your job?
• The intellectual satisfaction
• The problem it solves in the world
• The people it helps
• How you spend each day is how you are living your life
Kate Gregory @gregcons
41
CppNorth 2024, Toronto
“You are never too old to
set another goal or to
dream a new dream.”
—C.S. Lewis
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 42
Sleep
• Still the very best debugger
• Also is when you heal
• You may need more, you may need less
• There is no moral component to this
• Get as much as you need
• 1 month of good sleep made people feel 6 years younger
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 43
Living With Limitations
• You’d rather not be limited
• Ignoring them increases the consequences
• Wear your glasses
• Wear your brace
• Arrange a ride
• Have a nap before you go
• Now you’re doing and enjoying the thing
• Within your limitations, yes, but that was always the deal
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 44
It’s Not Always “Thing 1”
• Not everything is because of your age
• Or some diagnosis you’re living with
• People still hurt their knees, catch viruses, have side effects of
meds
• These things can be fixed!
• Don’t put up with something
• Oh well, I’m old, I guess I’m just in constant pain now
• Oh well, I’m old, I guess I just can’t think properly now
• Oh well, I’m old, I guess I just can’t do that now
• And you can develop new things (eg allergies)
• Investigate them, and get treatment if possible
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 45
Money
• How much should you have saved so that you can retire?
• When do you think you will retire?
• How much should you therefore save a year now?
• Saving will get easier later
• Daycare is expensive but temporary
• Raises usually outpace inflation
• As you accumulate assets some expenses go down
• It’s never too soon to build good habits
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 46
When Do You Want to Retire?
• Seems like most people don’t really know
• Not right now
• But not too long away
• Want to have enough money saved
• Worried about being bored with nothing to do
• Worried about not being healthy enough to enjoy it
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 52
What Worries You About Retirement?
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 53
Boredom and Loneliness
• The number one worry about retirement
• Stay socially engaged
• Work
• Volunteer
• A hobby you can’t do from home
• Make plans before you stop working
• Start doing these things before you stop working
• Volunteering is great for some people
• Don’t resist cliché activities
• They might work well for you, embrace the possibility
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 54
What About Your Legacy?
• Have you thought about this?
• If you’re running a project (open source or otherwise)
• Who will run it after you?
• How will you hand it over?
• What are you going to do with your digital stuff?
• Blog
• Video channel
• Documents for your projects and organizations
• Family pictures where you are the only one who knows who is in them and
when or where they were taken
• Should be as much as part of your planning as money and time
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 56
“At my age… people often ask me
if I’m passing the torch. I explain
that I’m keeping my torch,
thankyou very much – and I’m
using it to light the torches of
others.”
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto
—Gloria Steinem
57
Life comes at you fast
• Your plans, I’m sorry to say, can be
taken from you
• Having resources makes a big
difference
• Strength, physical and emotional
• People you can rely on
• Money, assets, and a line of credit
• Skills (technical, emotional,
communication, practical)
• Lets you focus on a sudden urgent
new priority
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 59
Loss
• You’re going to have funerals to attend
• Companies are going to close
• Friends will move away, change, or die
• They will stop making that ice cream you love
• You won’t be physically able to do certain things you loved doing
• The only cure for loss is gain
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 60
“Well something's lost, but
something's gained
In living every day”
—Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 61
Make New Friends
• The only cure for loss is to seek out new gains
• If you’re not making new friends at work how will you make them?
• When you’re 85, you’ll want a 60 year old friend
• Or even 40!
• To drive you places and lift your heavy groceries
• To help connect you to that youthful energy
• Hobbies
• Home (neighbours)
• Reconnect with family (and their friends)
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 62
Try New Things
• New activities
• New TV shows or streams
• New games
• New foods
• New people to be around
• New places and sights
• They won’t all stick, but some will turn out great
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 63
“Getting old is like climbing a
mountain; you get a little out of
breath, but the view is much
better!”
—Ingrid Bergman
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 64
The Good Parts
• You probably have more time and money
• They play your music in the grocery store
• People’s assumptions about you might be in your favour
• You can get away with things
• You are less afraid
• People have less power over you
• You can give things up if you want
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 65
For a Long and Happy Old Age
• Exercise
• for your body and your brain
• Save money
• While still doing “stuff” now
• Eat well and care for yourself
• Make friends
• Keep making friends, don’t stop
• Find a purpose
• It’s not too soon
• It’s not too late
Kate Gregory @gregcons CppNorth 2024, Toronto 66
The Aging Programmer
Kate Gregory
[email protected]
