There's a whole generation of engineers in a similar situation. But what to do? Typically they cost more than a young buck, and their station often requires income now versus a startup windfall later. What is a creative approach for them?
My uncle is just such a hacker. Developed the Canon Cat, target disk mode on the Mac, tested nuclear weapons in Nevada when he was a kid (and god knows what else he still won't talk about). But in America where we succeed by embracing the new it is equally characteristic to leave our old champions behind.
This is worth fixing. We're forsaking the very people we hope to become.
I've seen this up close and personal where the older engineers are being laid off and its very hard for them to get a job again.
The company seems to create a bad situation ... ie give him a project which he has no chance of finishing, his direct manager ignores his cries for help and then waits till he fails and then fires him.
I've known this happen to 2 people. And at least in one case, I knew the engineer just needed a little guidance.
We need to also be very careful that we are fixing the right thing, and we are fixing it the right way.
I have a completely off-in-the-weeds hypothesis that is based on some anecdotes of those around me. This hypothesis is as follows: the good, experienced hackers -- like your uncle -- are getting thrown into an faceless aggregate of all other not-so-good, experienced programmers of their generation. This bucket has a lot of assumptions that don't fit everyone within, but are applied to everyone all the same.
One of the things this bucket assumes, and one of the stereotypes we don't confront much, is that programmers don't develop any new skills after they leave college. They are useful so long as the technology du jour is the same as the day they graduated; as soon as it isn't, kick them to the curb and get the next batch.
Of course, this isn't true of all people. The problem is that they are lumped in with what I'll call the vocational programmers, who's titles are conspicuously prepended not just with the technologies they know, but the only technologies they will ever learn. It doesn't matter if they aren't capable or they just don't care, the net effect on their perception by others is the same. For a person to declare they are a loyal Blub programmer, for any value of Blub, is already the first nail in the coffin; more nails are driven every time their value of Blub gets more marginalized. That these sorts of programmers seem so common begets the assumption that every programmer has a defined value of Blub, and part of culling them is figuring out what their Blub is, and if it matches the required Blub du jour.
The bitch about stereotypes is they are almost never entirely false; there will often be some core group to which the stereotype applies, and then potentially a satellite group that gets falsely included into stereotype.
Something needs to change that changes the application of the stereotype; the easiest way I can think to do that is to make it extraordinarily painful on the people who would perpetuate the stereotype before they end up in a position where they do. Get the people who would cast disparaging labels on the bucket out as fast as possible, so the rest don't have the added weight of convincing everyone they're not like the others. These mediocre workers are not the people I hope to become, and though it may make me a heartless bastard for saying so, I have little reason but to forsake them. I think only by doing so will I avoid forsaking those that I do want to become, by making it clear that there is more than just a narrow band between the two groups.
Woah - did he write the book "The Humane Interface"? I just finished reading that a few days ago, it totally changed my views in regards to interface and even coding style.
My uncle is just such a hacker. Developed the Canon Cat, target disk mode on the Mac, tested nuclear weapons in Nevada when he was a kid (and god knows what else he still won't talk about). But in America where we succeed by embracing the new it is equally characteristic to leave our old champions behind.
This is worth fixing. We're forsaking the very people we hope to become.