Bridging Generations in Tech: A Reflection
Preamble: This post was dictated to ChatGPT, and is an accurate reflection / transcription of my thoughts. I didn’t have time to write it out myself since I’m getting ready for a hike, but I wanted to share it with you.
Today, I stumbled upon a LinkedIn post that used some slang I didn’t recognize—maybe it was something from teenage culture. It made me laugh because, honestly, sometimes we still feel like we’re teenagers in our heads, right? I’m 46, but I catch myself thinking like I’m 16 or 18 sometimes. It’s especially funny when I’m out with my wife, and we probably look like a couple of lovestruck teens.
But there’s a deeper thought here, especially in tech. We often get so wrapped up in our work, in our experience, that we forget about the generational shifts happening around us—the ones that came before us and the ones coming after. Think about the pioneers before us: the folks who coded in assembly, Pascal, Fortran, or COBOL, who worked on mainframes and mini-computers. These people have adapted to where we are now, with cloud computing, containers, and so on.
At the same time, there’s this new generation stepping in, and it’s easy to forget that they haven’t seen the tech world we grew up with. If you’re just coming out of university with a computer science degree, you’ve probably been learning all the latest stuff. Cloud-native is your default, and things like virtualization might seem like ancient history.
It’s something we need to keep in mind as professionals. Nothing in tech is permanent—we know that. But we’re also getting older ourselves. We’ve seen people retire, and unfortunately, some have left us unexpectedly. Meanwhile, this new generation is rising, and sometimes it feels like we aren’t doing enough to reach out to them. Where are they hanging out? What events do they go to? How can we connect with them, pick their brains, and find ways to collaborate?
It’s not about seeing them as newbies or teenagers who don’t get the corporate world yet—though some might not have had to deal with the politics or constraints of large enterprises (lucky them!). But that doesn’t mean they aren’t bringing fresh, valuable experiences to the table. They’re building incredible things and offering perspectives we can learn from.
I think we need to focus more on how this new generation can inspire us too. Engaging with them can give us a fresh take on the way we work and challenge our assumptions. It’s a chance to look at the world with new eyes and maybe rethink how we do things.
That’s what’s been on my mind today. Thanks for reading!