Two anecdotes reminded me how quickly times change:
1 - I was heading to Alaska and wanted to quickly grab a sticker to make my suitcase more recognizable. “Ok, a laptop sticker will work. Hmmm. What can I find?” For some inexplicable reason, the first one I grabbed was an XML laptop sticker. Where in the world did I even get that?
Rest assured, it worked. Definite unique constraint on that XML sticker. Even if I were on a flight full of people going to RandomDevCon 2025, there would be no one else with an XML sticker on their suitcase. I can imagine onlookers in hushed tones: “That guy over there probably still uses SOAP as his messaging protocol of choice and Perl for the backend of his web app.” “He’s probably named his first two children Knuth and Booch.”
2 - A colleague of mine was talking about Cursor and, in reference to Cursor’s beginnings, said: “back in the day.” Back in the day? For Cursor? Really? I couldn’t help but giggle. Clearly, we have very different definitions of “back in the day.”
So much has changed since I broke into the industry, and I realize my early years were full of buzzwords that would be unrecognizable to most of today’s grads.
Even mentioning XML now signals that you’re in the “over 40 in tech” category. Soon enough, simply having developed without tools like Cursor or Claude will be on that list too. Time moves on; things change.
So, what are some of my “he must be over 40 in tech” experiences?
Here’s a quick list. None of these are badges of honor (or special qualifications). If anything, a few of them feel more like scars. And no, I don’t want to go back, but I reserve the right to indulge in nostalgia once in a while.
I once:
- Installed a Linux distribution (http://www.slackware.com/zipslack/) on a 100MB Iomega Zip Disk.
- Installed my primary OS from an array of floppy disks.
- Installed nearly 10 different Linux distributions via CD.
- Had a 2400 baud modem (240 bytes/s) over which I’d download partitioned zip files with agonizingly high rates of corruption.
- Administered a BBS.
- Used Python before Django was released (I used Zope).
- Used Perl for profit (my first bug–precious memories).
- Used Tcl/Tk.
- Tried to learn Assembly language but lost interest.
- Used Turing language for a school project.
- Read the assembly source code of a DOS virus.
- Used more than one Borland IDE on DOS.
- Used SOAP.
- Used Spring Framework and Hibernate without annotations (hello XML!)
- Built a Swing GUI
- Used CGI with a few different programming languages
- Copied a computer game’s BASIC source code out of a book.
- Used a HEX editor.
Fellow “over 40 in tech” member, what would be on your list?
It’s amazing to see what tools like Claude Code can do today, and I’m glad to have them at my disposal. But being a proud member of “over 40 in tech,” I’m also thankful to have seen the earlier days that led us here. Those experiences give us a unique vantage point on what’s happening now.
The limitations (and raw edges) of tech back then forced us to be resourceful, something that continues to serve us well. And as we speed through the 2025 fast lane, there’s value in having those around who still remember what it was like to drive in the past lane.