So by your reckoning, old people with families and a life outside of work are... stupid and don't do anything? Are you serious? Being smart and showing you have great motivation to get things done in NO WAY relates to how old you are, if you have a family, or a life outside of work.
Most places I've seen want people to work extra hours consistently. Or at a bare minimum reward people working extra to the detriment of those working the normal hours.
For example, Bob works 8 hours per day and completes 80 units of work but Steve works 10 hours per day and completes 90 units of work. If you get enough 'Steves' in the organization then the remaining 'Bobs' look like slackers. If you can't work 10 hours per day because you have a family, then it puts you at a disadvantage. I've seen it happen. I was told that if I wanted a 7% raise/promotion that I needed to increase my working hours by 13%. Why would I take a rate cut for a position with more expectations and longer hours? My conclusion is that many managers do not think, or that they like to play dumb.
Sorry you've had that experience. Most places I've worked at, actually -every place- I've worked at, has rewarded me for doing the job and doing it well. Do I occasionally work a few hours extra here and there? Sure, but that's the exception not the rule. I'm mid-40s and have kids and a life outside of work. I don't do extra unless I'm self-motivated to do it or it's a rare requirement from the boss to get something done.
if you had read the article the guy worked 11 hour days and then came home and learned to program.
>As a commercial and residential plumber in metro Atlanta, he pulled 11-hour days working some of the dirtiest, stinkiest problems in the country.
from third paragraph.
later on
>Over the weeks that followed, Daniel forced himself to sit down at his computer after those 11-hour days. He grappled with Python and Javascript in the back of his work truck. One minute he was wrangling sewer pipelines - the next minute, CI/CD pipelines.
as it is past the edit window I suppose I will just note that the above was in reference to the quote from the article
>Over the weeks that followed, Daniel forced himself to sit down at his computer after those 11-hour days. He grappled with Python and Javascript in the back of his work truck. One minute he was wrangling sewer pipelines - the next minute, CI/CD pipelines.
so the guy was able to work 11 hour days and learn to program, two programming languages, to take part in this contest, and his code was evidently solid as well so - I have to assume he did at least 4 hours a day after the 11 hour work days, and then of course the weekends.
Evidently people thought I meant that only young people can be smart and get things done, which I can only think that misunderstanding arose from not having read the article. Because even if I agreed that smart and gets things done was the answer if someone pointed out young and has no family I would immediately think oh yeah, he was definitely pulling some 15 hour days there without distractions.
So... young and has no family or other important time-consuming commitments. That's what we're looking for!