> Some people aren't cut out for this kind of work, exhibit A.

Interesting that I'm not cut out for work that I voluntarily partake in, have an interest in, and am continually paid for.

> It's offensive for you to offer this kind of negative advice

I'm not one of those people who cares about whether people are offended more than calling a spade a spade, so don't waste your breath telling me that I'm offensive. It's one thing if you're personally insulted for some specific reason, but I'm not sorry if you or anyone else are offended because I have a perspective.

By the way, if you carefully reread my comment, you'll see that I didn't state that all passionate developers are bad or are suckers. Passionate developers can be the best asset or the worst asset on a team, and some people believe that passion is of upmost importance without considering whether their expectations of the 68.3% of software developers is reasonable; there's nothing wrong with being an adequate developer, and overly passionate developers tyrannizing others with their standards is a form of douchebaggery. If telling passionate developers to question whether their passion is making things worse for themselves and those around them is offensive, then offensive I shall be.

> not even ten years under your belt

You were that offended that you had to find me on GitHub in order to find my LinkedIn to figure out how long I've been in the industry? Wow. That's some real motivation you have. As if a resume can accurately represent how much actual experience someone has programming, interacting with other programmers, or working with passionate people in any industry in general.

Maybe you should stop hiding behind that throwaway account so we can dig into your history, bub. At least I'm open about mine.

> you know nothing about industry arcs and what makes a sustainable long career.

Oh, yeah? At what point does one finally know anything about industry arcs or sustainable careers? 15 years? 20 years? 30 years? Is it when I finally get a gray pube?

> Treating 29 (or 30) as an age cutoff for serious professional effort as an IC screams immaturity and total unawareness of the breadth and depth of the field.

Where did you get the idea that I was suggesting an age cutoff for serious professional effort? Effort is related to passion, but they are not the same thing. One can be a dispassionate about programming but still put in serious professional effort because they code to live, not live to code.

The point of the "29" thing is that nobody is young forever, and that life will not wait for you; there are lifestyles that are may be appropriate for young people but not necessarily for someone who is no longer that young. Being a "passionate" programmer can lead to workplace stress and reduced time living outside of the world outside of software, and while young people are going to pay their dues more or less, aged programmers should question whether intentional passion is a diminishing return at their experience level. Unnecessary stress isn't associated with prolonged lifespan, to say the least, and having good relationships with your coworkers is usually more important than whether code is elegant (a codeword for intellectually satisfying). Life outside of software shouldn't be postponed forever. Like I said in another comment, if I maintained the same passion as I did when I got started, my life in my 30s would be a lot less rich and vibrant than it currently is, and life is full of opportunities that present themselves only once.

> With your background, you could only have scratched the surface by that age.

Gee, I'm really sorry I didn't go into engineering targeting systems for Raytheon, or AAA console games, or LLMs for OpenAI, or some mass psychological experiment for Facebook. If I had, then I'd have real passion!

> Selfishly I'd like you to continue dispensing this kind of advice because attrition reduces competition, but I have to wonder, why are you even here commenting?

One could ask you the same pointless question, but I'll neither do that or dignify it with an actual response.

> Shouldn't you be walking your son or something worthy of the gravitas of three whole decades' life experience?

I could have made different choices in life that would have lead to me having children by now, yes, but what the purple fuck does that have to do with whether career passion can be counterproductive or harmful?

To recycle your verbiage, you are exhibit A of why passionate careerists can suck. Is the way you responded to me how you treat your coworkers when they don't meet your standards? Do you review their LinkedIn profiles when they don't use your favorite design patterns or don't code enough outside of work?

All you did was attack me without addressing whether what I said was valid, regardless of my experience level. The fact that you seem to care almost solely about the prestige of years spent coding, which is a number, says a lot about you. Passionate coders should consider whether their view of coding makes them insufferable; do you agree?