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Don't Fret Getting Old

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Andrew Parroccini
Andrew Parroccini

Drew Parroccini gives a talk addressing aging developers' common fears of becoming obsolete or unhireable as their skills and brains change. He notes research showing the hippocampus and myelin sheath shrink with age, slowing communication. However, connections between distant brain areas also strengthen, helping older developers see the "big picture." Drew encourages playing to strengths, stimulating the hippocampus by learning, and embracing age-related brain changes. He stresses self-care like leaving work at work and using paid time off.

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1 DON’T FRET OLD AGE D R E W PA R R O C C I N I Hello everyone, thanks for making it out tonight. What I wan’t to cover is a hard topic for me to face. Sort of like facing my own mortality. Get anxious when I see articles talking about ‘average age of developers’ (28) I can’t be the only one
2 ALL ABOUT ME @ A PA R R O C C I N I W W W. PA R R O C C I N I . C O M 16 YEARS OF FULL-STACK DEVELOPMENT PITTSBURGH, PA => PORTLAND, OR TERRIBLE DOG Talk about your background, keep It short.
3 THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM I became a developer because I loved being able to learn something new every single day. That being said, these days, it seems to be harder and harder to feel like I belong in the same room as all you brilliant people. We all share a common fear. Unhireable Outdated Be out of a job one day
4 THIS STUFF IS HARD This stuff is hard! In the past 6 months I’ve had to be able to solve specific problems with two languages that I had very little experience with. Humanity isn’t built for this. Especially when we tricked javascript into running a server. Feel like a senior citizen who can’t program their vcr.
5 DOOMED Is that it? Are we doomed to be obsolete dinosaurs? What is actually happening to our brains as we got older? As we age, Some brain areas, including the hippocampus (limbic system, short-term thoughts to long-term memory), shrink in size. The myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerve fibers wears down, which can slow the speed of communication between neurons. Your brain atrophies. Brain diseases become more prevalent and common.
6 DOOMED? There’s a bright side to aging. branching of dendrites (segments of the neuron that receive stimulation) increases, and connections between distant brain areas strengthen. These changes enable the aging brain to become better at detecting relationships between diverse sources of information, capturing the big picture, and understanding the global implications of specific issues. with age, your brain becomes better at seeing the entire forest and worse at seeing the leaves. With that being said, here’s some things to remember.
7 YOU’RE HERE FOR A REASON Play to your strengths. Embrace the changes in your brain chemistry. Start looking at projects from a different angle, see how it fits. Keep stimulating your Hippocampus. Keep trying to learn new tools. The worse that can happen is you learn a little bit. Clients trust older developers more.
8 SELF CARE Leave the work at work. End of the day, you’re not going to be glad you took all that unpaid OT. Make a rule not to deploy on fridays. Out profession has some of the worst PTO policies I’ve ever seen. Don’t be afraid to use every last minute of it.
9 THANK YOU D R E W PA R R O C C I N I All images graciously credited to unsplash.com https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/how-memory-and-thinking-ability-change-with-age Thank you all for coming out. Come find me at the break or lets go get a beer after. Plug craft meetup

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Don't Fret Getting Old

  • 1. 1 DON’T FRET OLD AGE D R E W PA R R O C C I N I Hello everyone, thanks for making it out tonight. What I wan’t to cover is a hard topic for me to face. Sort of like facing my own mortality. Get anxious when I see articles talking about ‘average age of developers’ (28) I can’t be the only one
  • 2. 2 ALL ABOUT ME @ A PA R R O C C I N I W W W. PA R R O C C I N I . C O M 16 YEARS OF FULL-STACK DEVELOPMENT PITTSBURGH, PA => PORTLAND, OR TERRIBLE DOG Talk about your background, keep It short.
  • 3. 3 THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM I became a developer because I loved being able to learn something new every single day. That being said, these days, it seems to be harder and harder to feel like I belong in the same room as all you brilliant people. We all share a common fear. Unhireable Outdated Be out of a job one day
  • 4. 4 THIS STUFF IS HARD This stuff is hard! In the past 6 months I’ve had to be able to solve specific problems with two languages that I had very little experience with. Humanity isn’t built for this. Especially when we tricked javascript into running a server. Feel like a senior citizen who can’t program their vcr.
  • 5. 5 DOOMED Is that it? Are we doomed to be obsolete dinosaurs? What is actually happening to our brains as we got older? As we age, Some brain areas, including the hippocampus (limbic system, short-term thoughts to long-term memory), shrink in size. The myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerve fibers wears down, which can slow the speed of communication between neurons. Your brain atrophies. Brain diseases become more prevalent and common.
  • 6. 6 DOOMED? There’s a bright side to aging. branching of dendrites (segments of the neuron that receive stimulation) increases, and connections between distant brain areas strengthen. These changes enable the aging brain to become better at detecting relationships between diverse sources of information, capturing the big picture, and understanding the global implications of specific issues. with age, your brain becomes better at seeing the entire forest and worse at seeing the leaves. With that being said, here’s some things to remember.
  • 7. 7 YOU’RE HERE FOR A REASON Play to your strengths. Embrace the changes in your brain chemistry. Start looking at projects from a different angle, see how it fits. Keep stimulating your Hippocampus. Keep trying to learn new tools. The worse that can happen is you learn a little bit. Clients trust older developers more.
  • 8. 8 SELF CARE Leave the work at work. End of the day, you’re not going to be glad you took all that unpaid OT. Make a rule not to deploy on fridays. Out profession has some of the worst PTO policies I’ve ever seen. Don’t be afraid to use every last minute of it.
  • 9. 9 THANK YOU D R E W PA R R O C C I N I All images graciously credited to unsplash.com https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/how-memory-and-thinking-ability-change-with-age Thank you all for coming out. Come find me at the break or lets go get a beer after. Plug craft meetup