I've never lived in a wealthy neighborhood but
have always lived in at least nice neighborhoods.
In each of those neighborhoods, if look around,
see that the most common job that supports the
families is being the head, often a sole proprietor,
of a small or medium business. For the point of
the article, these small business heads have a
big advantage: Their age doesn't matter as long
as they can keep doing the work or at least keep
doing well managing the work.

Yes, there are reports of major companies who
hire Bachelor's and Master's degree engineers
and by age 35 want them into management or out
the door. So, maybe 1 in 100 stays around
for a full career. So, at age 18 there
is Joe and Sam. Joe goes to college
and graduate school in engineering, joins
the big company, and is out the door at
age 35. Sam did some yard work in high
school and just continues. Soon he has
six trucks and 12 guys working for him.
He has a house and a family, and his wife
helps with scheduling, billing, and
customer service. As long as the grass
keeps growing, he's okay. He's expanding
into lawn service for higher end clients,
e.g., banks, medical office campuses, etc.
He's planning to expand into landscape architecture
with a plant nursery. So at age 35, Joe
is out of work and Sam is doing much better.

Sam has a neighbor Pete who is an electrician.
He doesn't bother to put his name in the
Yellow Pages; he doesn't have a Web site;
actually he does nothing on publicity. But
he still gets plenty of calls, has a house,
family, truck, and an apprentice. Roger
got a Ph.D. in electronic engineering,
worked for the big company, got fired at
age 35, and wishes he could swap his
Ph.D. for an electrician's license.

Kelly's father ran a small grocery
store with two gas pumps out front.
Now Kelly runs 10 gas stations with
convenience stores, has a 50' yacht,
a summer place on the water, a winter
place in the mountains, and is paying
full tuition for his children at private
high schools and colleges. At his yacht
club he notices a lot of small business
guys like himself but nearly no technical
employees or venture funded entrepreneurs.

More generally, a career should last 40+
years. Okay, look around: What big
companies have ever provided such long
lasting careers? How commonly? E.g.,
IBM? Okay, near 1994 they lost $16
billion and went from 407,000 employees
down to 205,000. A LOT of careers got
ended way before 40 years. So, at IBM,
if joined in 1954 then had a chance of
getting in 40 years. Much before 1954,
IBM didn't look so good. So, really,
for revered IBM, really had to join
in the early 1950s -- that was about
the only chance. Much the same
for GM, GE, AT&T, etc.

Lesson 1: For a 40+ year career with one
big company, mostly just f'get about it.
Maybe can pull that off in K-12 teaching,
college teaching if can get tenure,
or working for state or the federal
government.

Lesson 2: A huge fraction of the people
with stable careers for 40+ years head
their own small businesses.

Okay, for hackers and HN, we have:

Lesson 3: By age 35 or so, likely gotta
be running your own business. Just
grind that into your planning. For
'information technology', maybe it
can be a great advantage. Still have
to be running your own business.

Competition, how to handle competition?
How do the people in the houses on the
nice streets do it? Sure, they nearly all
take great advantage of a geographical
barrier to entry. Since nearly no one
drives over 50 miles to see a dentist,
be one of the best dentists in a radius
of 50 miles and do well. Same for being
an electrician, running a lawn service,
remodeling kitchens and baths, auto
repair, auto body repair, independent
insurance agent, manufacturer's representative,
etc.

So, hackers should plan to do an 'information
technology' startup. If it does as well as
a successful electrician, okay. As well
as a guy with 10 gas stations and convenience
stores, still better. As well as Google,
terrific. Still, can't much hope to do
well just working for a salary.

Alternatives? Sure, there can be many.
Maybe will get founder's stock in a
successful startup.

Still, look up and down the nice
residential streets and see a lot of
guys running their own businesses.
So, do much the same except use
information technology as an advantage.

For the article, it goes on and on about
the 'reasons' a guy 50 can't get a job
programming -- he asks for too much money,
his skills are out of date, etc. The
"too much money" is no reason to be
unemployable; the fact is, he won't
be hired at anything much above
minimum wage. Skills? His 'skills'
may be far superior, and for being
'up to date' with the latest version of
some language, that's as easy or easier
for an experienced guy than a young
guy.

But
there is another reason: The supervisor
is supposed to be older, and the subordinate,
younger. So, a guy 50 has to work for
a guy 60 and can't work for a guy 40.

There's just no way out of it: In the
US, big corporations as sources of
careers are going away -- have heavily
gone away. Maybe if the US would get
back on its feet, e.g., quit being so
happy about creating economic
booms in distant countries, big
companies could be stable enough to
provide good, long term employment.
Maybe. So, right, notice that one
of the keys is to have a good geographical
barrier to entry, that is, no competition
from distant countries. So, basically
the US is losing out on competing
around the world so that what's left
are lots of small businesses each of which
serves customers in a radius of about
50 miles. Sad situation.

There is another observation: Supposedly
the 1-2 wealthiest areas in the US
are Silicon Valley and Greenwich, CT
(with the hedge funds). Well, third
is within about 60 miles of the Washington
Monument. Because the Federal Civil
Service pays so well? Yes, but only
indirectly. The guys with the really
nice houses in the best neighborhoods
in that area mostly are not working
for the Federal Government. Instead
they are running small businesses
where the customers are the Federal
Government or are working for the
Federal Government. E.g., a dentist
can do well because the millions of
people there working for the Federal
Government aren't rich but are relatively
well off and can afford to pay for a
dentist. So, if want to run your own
small business, then maybe pick one
of those three areas. E.g., in Silicon
Valley, to heck with venture capital
and information technology and, instead,
be an electrician who installs fantastic
underwater lighting in swimming pools
of successful information technology
entrepreneurs. Or run a red sauce
Italian restaurant, say, near
Gaithersburg, MD.