Xian Yu answered the reader's question: I'm 30 years old, is it too late to start working hard now?

30 years old, is it too late to start working hard now?

This reminds me of the closing remarks of Dambisa Moyo's book Dead Aid:

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”

"The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and now is the second time", which inspires us not to be bound by age and time. Linyuan is envious of fish, it is better to retreat and make a net. Instead of complaining and sighing, it is better to start action now .

There are also jokes on the Internet, Huang Zhong and Liu Bei in the 60s, Ieyasu Tokugawa in the 70s of the world, Jiang Ziya as the prime minister in the 80s, She Taijun in command at the age of 100, Sun Wukong at the age of 500 to study scriptures in the west, and Bai Suzhen down the mountain for more than 1,000 years to fall in love. The way tells the truth about the late bloomer.

It sounds really reassuring, it's never too late, starting now is just a late bloomer.

To be honest, we are all 30 years old. The past cannot be remonstrated, and the come can still be followed. Even if these words are false, I can only choose to believe. Fortunately, there are really some examples of late bloomers in history, which can ignite a little hope. , a little bit of sustenance, as for whether I can really change, this... let's talk about it...

After a little blood, think about it, the so-called late bloomer, "late" can certainly relieve people, but the premise is to become "great", otherwise it will not be called "late bloomer", but "too late to regret", and become "great". Great power", although for most people, it does not require talent, but also requires a lot of hard work, and this "hard work" is not a slogan, a determination, a plan can be achieved, if let me analyze this "Effort", I think, contains at least two directions, one is "more and more clear cognition", the other is "more and more exquisite ability", although the two complement each other, let me say, still "more and more A clear understanding" is more important.

In our life, we have made countless determinations and made countless plans. We always think that when something happens, we rely on willpower and grit our teeth to pass. If it is not completed, it must be because of our lack of determination, and the final result is still the same. Failed again and again. Countless defeats have merged into today's anxiety. As everyone knows, whether we do or not do something, as well as willpower itself, also need to pay attention to methods. If you want to quit smoking, it’s not because of the addiction that you can endure it. If you want to get up early, it can’t be solved by going to bed early the day before. Anxiety can’t be solved by diverting your attention. It can be solved, and the social skills are awesome. It can’t be solved by learning a few black skills. Things have their own causes, laws and solutions, but we always blindly believe in ourselves and our willpower. Able to grit his teeth to solve the problem, but also blindly believe in his own ability, thinking that he can solve it by learning a few skills, but he refuses to spend time in depth to learn the underlying laws, starting from the bottom, combining his own situation, groping and trying to solve, and finally The result is only failure. Of course, with regard to human behavior, the underlying laws are very large in content, but it is precisely because of its large, complex, and cumbersome content that the gap between people is created, and these are also things that you are not familiar with. Willing to do, where adults can't.

Mastering the underlying laws of things can help us do things better. This is an intuitive benefit brought to us by "clear cognition", but I also want to talk about some unintuitive ones, such as, "I want to be a What kind of person?" Although everyone's interests and ideals are different, I think at least this person, when he is the person he wants to become, should be calm in his heart, firm in his eyes, and bright in his eyes. You may think, man is an emotional animal, how can it be possible to maintain a state all the time? It is indeed true that it is impossible for people to maintain the same emotional state all the time, but people can do it without turning back when they know that they will lose, and when faced with a choice, they can still choose the difficult but correct path. When you are exhausted, you can still grit your teeth and hold on, and when you are sad and lost, you can still wipe away your tears and turn to the light, and this is not a problem that can be solved by willpower, it is because you have a reward for the world. Diligence, the brilliance of human nature, or the belief in the cycle of cause and effect, you can only do that little bit more, and it is the accumulation of that little bit of change that ultimately leads to qualitative change.

So do you believe in what heaven rewards for diligence and the brilliance of human nature? I think of course you believe it, after all, this is what we have been educated, but whether you sincerely believe that you can still make the same choice in the face of suffering depends on how deeply you understand these things. , and I think that this level of depth can only be obtained by thinking alone, and there are two ways to cause you to think: travel thousands of miles, read thousands of books, in short, practice and reading. So if you just go through the day as usual, no fiddling, no trying, no reading, no thinking, your day just repeats itself.

I have talked so much about cognition. In fact, I just want to say that technology itself cannot change you. Read less reference books. In addition to technology, read more books of humanities and social sciences, and toss more interesting things. , build more connections with others, these will really bring about change.

Next, let’s talk about “more and more sophisticated ability”. The “ability” here is a comprehensive general term, not just a certain ability. For the front-end, when it first started to work, the ability may refer to its ability. Technology implementation, as the work gets longer and longer, the ability includes more ability to analyze problems, ability to solve problems, ability to communicate, ability to structure and so on.

Programmers often have the anxiety of being 35 years old. This is essentially the mismatch between ability and age. If it is a basic development position, age is indeed a disadvantage, but if it is a technical expert position, too young is a disadvantage, so a high-level position is a disadvantage. The required ability will inevitably take time to accumulate to be tempered. So time is passing, and the outside world's requirements for our abilities are constantly changing. This is the passive side. For us personally, ability is the foundation of our life and the way to realize our self-worth. Along with your ability With the growth of the company, the problems you can solve will also become larger and larger, and the value you can create will also become larger and larger, and eventually you can also find a place in this value.

After talking about the two directions of hard work, let's talk about the "success" in the "late bloomer". How does it count as "completed"? It's like asking, what counts as success? The answer is also obvious and varies from person to person.

After going through the era of the Anti-Japanese War, we will not be as convinced as Paul Korchakin that our whole life should be dedicated to the cause of liberating all mankind. In this era of material abundance, we are more about highlighting ourselves. We believe that the life of a human being Only once, and the most important thing is the journey itself. Success defined on this basis is no longer a success in the traditional sense. If you have won the eyes and praise of the world, your heart will be dead, and it cannot be called a kind of success. If you choose a path, you will not regret your mistakes. To choose, to be able to enjoy the happiness of the moment, and to be full of hope for the future, this is not success, but also the road to success. Live the life you want in your heart, but this life is not a daydream. Everyone has a life that you can see in your heart and feel that you can get it. That life is the life you want. Perhaps the goal of some people’s efforts is to support their family, buy a house and buy a car. Seriously, if you have a car, a house, and a wife and children, isn’t it a winner in life? But it is scary, compared with others, what others get at 25 years old, we only get it at 35 years old, fortunately, we are 35 years old, and even if we are not confused, I believe that we can accept our fate and accept this reality.

However, we must be unwilling. We always feel that we have to do something in life. We are not like Steve Jobs, "living is to change the world", but we also feel that we must do something to prove our worth. Any problem, this is human nature. We want to be integrated into the group and belong, and we also hope that we are unique and can be remembered by others, so we still have to do something.

So what are we going to do? The ghost knows what you want to do, I just want to tell you, just accept yourself who will seek change like this, it is you who pursues the ordinary, and it is also you who pursues the extraordinary. As for how far you can do it, it depends on the times, opportunities, noble people, etc., but the method is the best, only among them, tossing is better than no tossing.

After talking so much, I actually want to talk about sermons, magic tools, Taoism, and the law to establish the foundation. Next, let’s talk about the Fa.

Everyone wants to get a promotion and a salary increase, but there are so many pits in the company, most of them can't do it, or can't reach the desired height, so for most programmers, 30-year-olds always face some choices , such as entering management, starting a business, changing industries, continuing coding, etc. If such a question is raised, it is mostly caught between management and technology. In terms of management, the ability is still a little worse, and in terms of technology, there is no big gap with the younger classmates. If you really have no interest, it is purely for a salary, and you are interested in other industries, there is nothing wrong with changing it. Starting a business depends on your personal ability and opportunities, and most people are still coding. Although there are some news about the elimination of the 35-year-old, in fact, the formal front-end career has not appeared for many years. Now is the time when most front-end students enter their 30s. From my observation, most of the 30-year-old Compared with the classmates who just started working, although the technical knowledge is similar or even slightly worse than that of the classmates who just started working, they can analyze problems, see the depth of problems, take stock of plans, and communicate with others. In terms of ability, as well as the methodology formed by past experience, these are all worth learning by students who have just worked. Although these are difficult to examine like technical knowledge, they do exist and affect the actual development of the project. By the age of 30, technology is actually not. It is no longer a matter of uniqueness. It is no longer the ability of someone to do projects alone, but more importantly, the ability to analyze problems, solve problems, and rely on experience. Of course, the group of students who just graduated may not have realized it yet, but they gradually realized it without educating them.

Having said so much, if you just decided to do front-end at the age of 30, I suggest you don't do it. If you have been doing front-end but haven't made a name for yourself, I hope you believe that after so many years of experience, in addition to technical knowledge, you There must be some accumulation. What you need to do is to look for the direction you are good at according to your own business, and then continue to work hard, be curious about new technologies, and keep learning about the practice of the industry, in addition to a solid technical foundation. Toss in your own technical field, and share more in your own technical field. Slowly, when you look back, you will also be considered a god.

People often say that you have to set goals, make plans, and then go in that direction unswervingly, but I feel that before doing these so-called "real things", there is actually still a lot of preparation work to be done. If you don’t have a goal, you can still move forward. There is a direction. If you are interested, good at, interesting, valuable, you can do it. If you do it, you will think, and then you will have a new direction. , When you have tossed more things, slowly, the goal will be clear, and then you can make plans and move in this direction firmly, when will the goal be clear? Seriously, when you have determined your goals through constant tossing and reflection, and you are firm in your heart, that’s it. Most of the goals we set, the biggest problem is that we rationally think that this is the best goal for us, but emotionally, we do not firmly believe in this direction, or we still resist inwardly, so whether it is 30 or not Years old, at what age, before we find the direction we believe in, we all need to keep practicing and thinking, "What kind of person am I?" "I am happiest when I do things?" "Why do I Happy?" "What kind of person do I want to be?" "What do I want to do?" These are all things that need to be reflected and perfected in constant practice. Therefore, even if there is no goal, start to do it first. The important goal is clear in practice, not set by thinking.

In fact, at the age of 30, one-third of life has gone by. Of course, one-third is a good saying. I think most people will not live to 90 years old. After all, the average life expectancy in China is only 71 years old. Because there are not many people who have died in the group of programmers, it is impossible to predict the life expectancy of this profession, but in the current environment, it should not be so high. If you count 71 years old, in fact, life has passed 42 years. %, taking into account the last 20%, that is, when you start at the age of 57, you don’t have much energy and physical strength to toss, and you need to check your ID card when you go out to travel and participate in slightly exciting activities. I have been tossing around for the past 30 years, and during this time, I have to take care of my elders and raise the four-legged gold-swallowing beast. Thinking about it, it is a different life experience from the first half of my life, but I really don’t have much time left for myself. , although these 30 years are full of countless passive things occupying your time, and in the face of this, all I want to share with you is:

For a long time, it seemed like my life was about to start. But there are always obstacles standing in the way, some things have to be resolved first, some work has yet to be done, time seems to be running out, there is a debt to be paid, and then life will begin. At last I finally understood that these obstacles were exactly my life.

After talking so much, it seems that there is still nothing to say about the landing, but for myself in my 30s, the actual plan is less important than the peace of mind, so my thoughts on this issue are written to Others, also write to themselves.

Xian Yu answers readers' questions

Please leave me a message at https://www.yuque.com/yayu/ask/dzng83 , I will answer the questions in the order