I never thought about my age much. Not until lately. I’ve never spent a lot of time looking at myself in a mirror, mostly because in my minds eye I remember what I look like. My lifestyle has been pretty consistent over the last 50 years or so. Work, play, fun in the sun, play in the snow.
Attila the Hun had an active, outdoor lifestyle.
For the last 19 years or so I have worked with Drupal. At the time I had no intention of learning Drupal, it was demonstrated to me during one of my gigs in Vermont years ago, and the more I worked with it the more I liked it, and the more I ended up getting noticed and being hired to do Drupal work. I have not limited myself to just doing Drupal, it just seems that there is always a demand for skilled devs to build stuff.
My feelings about being a web dev are pretty mixed, similar to the trade itself. There is good and bad in everything I guess, work is no different. I think that the most enjoyable thing for me about this career path is the ability to build stuff and fix stuff. I enjoy the fast-paced environment and the constant technical innovations that I get to work with. I enjoy constantly honing my development skills. After 29 years of this, I do got some skills.
To quote Joe Strummer, —“On the road to Rock and Roll, there’s a lot of wreckage in the ravine.”
Lately, I have noticed a new vibe around. I’m picking up on how people perceive Drupal, based on its age. Apparently, because Drupal recently had a prestigious 20-year anniversary, that makes it over the hill, out to pasture, or in some way decrepit.
Now this bothers me a bit. I feel its wrong to classify people or frameworks by how they look or how old they are. As the saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
One example.
My cat is mean. I mean to say that she likes to bite me when she is in a bad mood. She also likes to bite me when she is in a playful mood. She does not break the skin, but it still hurts. I think no one would put up with it but me, I’m attached to her. When she jumps up to have a nap on my lap, it can be a real mixed bag.
At 4:14 on a Friday I am meeting with another, younger developer, and we are working on a collab getting a new feature out the door. I’m on camera, the cat jumps up on my lap to introduce herself and what does homie say?
“Your cat is probably very helpful for you. When you get stressed out, you can pet her, it’s very calming.”
I don’t disagree.
I’m a hyperactive person who craves a lot of stimulation. It folds together nicely with my addictive personality. I have been that way all my life. I’m actually a lot more mellow now that I am older.
Dude did not consider that the animal on my lap is a bloodthirsty, aggressive predator, that would like nothing more than to rip the skin off a baby bunny and eat its brain, then go on to chomp me later when she is feeling a certain kind of way. He just sees a cute kitty. I feel she constantly exploits it.
Now I know what aging is like. It’s how people perceive something. If I was in my early 30s, people would see me as high-energy. Now that I’m older, people mistake it for something else. That’s on them.
I think Drupal itself, might be suffering from the same syndrome. Perception is a funny thing. People (in general) can sometimes make assumptions about things that stick around for a long time, without reasoning why they stood the test of time. Drupal is around not because someone froze the code, stuck it on the shelf and decided it was an icon. Drupal is around because it adapted, learned and has earned success.
Like older anything, today’s Drupal is smarter than last year’s Drupal because of what it has lived through. Every cyber threat it encounters Drupal developers adapt Drupal to handle and repel, over and over, is nothing short of evolution.
Drupal is tough now. Drupal is experienced.
I stopped comparing myself to other people many years ago. I have a simple creed.
GOD, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
If you think Drupal is going to disappear any time soon you are sadly mistaken. Why would it?
Drupal has unmatched flexibility: it allows you to create highly customized content types (e.g., custom data structures for events, staff profiles, or products) rather than being limited to standard pages and posts.
Drupal features enterprise grade security: Known for its rigorous security standards, it is heavily relied upon by government agencies, healthcare networks, and universities.
Drupal is infinitely scalable: It easily manages high-traffic websites with massive databases and complex, multilingual requirements.
Drupal features composable architecture: Drupal functions excellently as a backend/API layer for “headless” web and mobile apps, or as a traditional CMS.
Like myself, Drupal has been around for a while. I think the most noteworthy thing about us is how dang good we look for our age, and how well we move. Now that AI is a part of this, how could you possibly stop us? Hmm?
I know that Drupal, my cat Maxxine, and I will someday die. Everything eventually succumbs to the effects of time.
Not today though. Not tomorrow either. I wouldn’t hold your breath.
https://www.drupal.org/about/in-the-news/blog/on-its-20th-birthday-drupal-poised-to-capture-the-next-generation
