Quora 上有人问「年纪大的程序员去哪了」
2017年，84 岁的 Gerald Weinberg 回答到：
根据我的判断，我应该是能回答这个问题的年纪最大的人了。我开始写代码的时候，「程序员」这个职位还没有诞生。
这周我刚好已经84岁了，跟我同时期入行的程序员（1956年，大概20个人）几乎都已经过世了，我希望我的伙伴们去了天堂（也可能是去了云里？）。
我自己已经慢慢地在停止为了工资写代码，转而去教年轻人如何成为杰出的专业程序员。不过我依然会为了学习和快乐而写很多代码，早在 40 年前，我就已经不能忍受为一个对编程一无所知的老板写代码了。
我更多的收入来自于顾问、教书和写作等工作。这些工作都和编程有关，不过更注重整体设计而非代码细节。如果你是一名优秀的程序员，你也可以在年纪大的时候做这些工作。不过你不能傻坐着等别人来找你，你要善于推销自己。
如果你还不够优秀，就快点让你自己变优秀，否则就早点退休做点别的吧。我们不需要平庸的程序员，从来不需要。
这是我的个人网站：Gerald M. Weinberg: Writer
完，以下是原文。
As far as I can tell, I’m the oldest old programmer to answer this question so far. I’m so old that the title “programmer” didn’t even exist when I started.
I celebrate my 84th birthday this week, and as far as I know, most of the programmers who were around under various titles when I started (in 1956, maybe 20 of us in the USA) are now dead. I hope they’ve gone to heaven (the cloud?).
Myself, I gradually ceased writing code for money and transitioned to training younger people to be outstanding professional programmers. I still write lots of code for my own use and amusement and learning, but it’s been at least 40 years since I could tolerate writing code for a boss who didn’t understand what programming was all about.
I’ve earned multiple livings as consultant, teacher, and writer. Always about programming, but more about design rather than coding details as the years went by. If you’re good, you can do any of these things even at advanced age, but you can’t just sit around waiting for someone to find you.
If you’re not good, then either get good (it’s never too late) or retire. We don’t need mediocre programmers, and we never did.