Martin,

I'm glad you used the word "good". Today is my 61st birthday and I consider myself to be a good programmer.

I started on the path I'm currently on 40 years ago next month and have thoroughly enjoyed the "ride". Starting out learning computers/programming today at the age of 16 and staying in the field(s) for the next 40-50 years all I can say is WOW!!! I envy you and the things you're going to see and do if it is anything close to the things I've seen in the past 40.

Learning new languages and solving problems utilizing them is "brain food". You are forced to remember things you did years ago in order to solve a new but similar problem today. The brain is not really any different than the rest of your body when it comes to staying healthy. You need to exercise it....so, because mine gets plenty of exercise, I'm looking forward to many more years of active programming. As of this writing, I have no plans to retire.

A few things that I can recommend are:

Maintain physical fitness.
Protect your eyes from the glare of the monitor.
Maintain good posture at all times, especially during the many hours you spend sitting at the computer.
Eat healthy foods.
Get up from the computer at regular intervals. Go for a short walk, stretch, exercise, etc.

If you don't do these things, your physical health will suffer and, in turn, so will your programming.

I hope your future will be as happy and as memorable as mine has been.

Happy Programming,

Dale


>Hi you all. I am a 16 year old starting to program in Foxpro and Visual Basic. I just wanted to find out how old can a good programmer be (40's , 50's, 60's, 70's ?) and what do they usually do after retiring from code.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Martin