I think this is kind of sad, but I guess I'm also very fortunate in who (most of) my employers have been. I've spent a large portion of my career working in codebases alongside stuff from the '90s, and with my first employer the things I was doing ~20 years ago are still in production systems today, right there alongside the older bits from the '90s in many cases.
I saw some comments in code last week from the founders of my current employer, written back in the '90s when I would've just been entering high school. That code and much more is still there in a product used and beloved by millions.
At an employer in the middle there, the oldest code was from the mid-2000s but it's still kicking around. Code I wrote there a decade later is still in production use today.
I can only think of a single employer where this isn't the case and it was a shitty startup that I never should've accepted an offer for.
That's great, I guess, but the point is that all work is ephemeral. Whether it lasts five years or 100, there's going to be an end date. When you're on your death bed, is "my code was in production longer than average" going to be what you want your legacy to be?
That's what we're talking about here. Sure, it'd be nice if I built a knockout startup with code so great it lived beyond me, and that's a worthy thing to pursue. However, in the end looking back you may, like Woz, find that was less important than other things.
Not at all how I took it, but okay. I worked in embedded, medical robotics, and am now in games. People use the shit I've built, I wish more people in this stupid industry had a similar experience. That's what I was talking about.
> When you're on your death bed, is "my code was in production longer than average" going to be what you want your legacy to be?
This is just weird. No. I don't believe that I'll think about it much. God willing I won't think about it at all starting as soon as I retire but let alone on my death bed.
As far as I'm aware the work I've done for institutions that still exist is all largely in place. I wouldn't consider this unusual or surprising in most industries, and certainly not a sign of exceptional competence on my part.
Life outside the FAANG-adjacent-or-worshipping community is completely different.
I saw some comments in code last week from the founders of my current employer, written back in the '90s when I would've just been entering high school. That code and much more is still there in a product used and beloved by millions.
At an employer in the middle there, the oldest code was from the mid-2000s but it's still kicking around. Code I wrote there a decade later is still in production use today.
I can only think of a single employer where this isn't the case and it was a shitty startup that I never should've accepted an offer for.