Ads have many specialized requirements that you wouldn't really want to build yourself. Tracking, tokenization of url parameters, rotating ads to meet impression goals, and typically advertisers have build their ads to be served by major ad networks, so you would have to replicate their systems to support those ad units. Ads are way more complicated than most people realize.
We give fizzbuzz style tests to all our candidates. Most fail, but it's not an indicator of experience at all. Some of the quickest to pass just got out of GA and never worked in the industry before. It really tests aptitude at a specific type of problem. Because of this it does not make or break the interview. We also look at their portfolio/code samples as well. After interviewing many candidates I've found the one's who pass our fizzbuzz tests also have much better code.
Because of this I'm convinced that aptitude and passion are significantly important to the ability to program. Just grinding your way through CS classes will not a programmer make.
I should add we let the candidates use google, so even if they don't know modulus or whatever, they still can prove their ability to look up things.
I agree with you. This article is incredibly, just woefully dead wrong. I have interviewed hundreds of programming candidates. Reviewed thousands of lines of code. Programming is an aptitude that requires passion. The only programmers who are good are the ones who love to do it. If you don't enjoy it, find another profession. Because all the things he said aren't true are.
If you don't want to be constantly learning then this is the wrong profession for you. You have to stay current, or else you will slide from good to mediocre to fired within the span of several years.
Every time I have to debug another problem in Wordpress, every time I encounter another bug in WP's core code I raise my head up and cry, impotent rage against the nameless void. Wordpress' architecture resembles a plate of spaghetti. It's abominable, a horror upon the face of this planet.
It doesn't necessarily make sense when you have a team working on different things, front-end devs working on the templates and back-end devs working on services, etc.
Furthermore most likely you will be sharing many partial templates or widgets between different views and sections in your app. So those have to go in some sort of common views folder, losing much of your grouping.
I wouldn't say either way is right or wrong, it just depends on your workflow, size of the app and size of the team working on it.
I think the only way people would be comfortable is if you use strong one-way encryption, meaning you yourself cannot decrypt a user's data. But to enable trust, and being a startup, you would have to have your code reviewed by a reliable third party or open-sourced for public review. Google gets away with it because they have built a brand with a reputation that some people trust enough with their data (I don't personally, but enough do). A much easier path is to create a version that works locally with no external communication. Both options would be ideal, but perhaps more work than you care to take on. No matter how it pans out it will be a great learning experience.
As a forty something manager - I want to work around people who know things I don't - I want to learn from them. And I do every day :) But ageism is real and you most likely felt it. You might want to focus on team leadership, but certainly never lose your enthusiasm.
geezer here - You don't really have to relearn everything every 5 years, but yeah, part of what I love about tech is that I'm always learning and ready to adopt cool new technology when it is truly a better solution to a problem. Experience allows me to see through the hype and know when something new is actually better, something that younger guys lack. I feel really young at heart because I'm always learning. One thing 20-30 year olds should remember, time speeds up as you get older. You will be forty before you know it. Better start creating an industry that can support you when you are older or else you will be the next dinosaur who can't get a job.