I too am in my 40's, I work with many of the "next-gen" folks in their 20's, and by and large, they just want to keep their heads down and hack too. Of course

I too am in my 40's, I work with many of the "next-gen" folks in their 20's, and by and large, they just want to keep their heads down and hack too. Of course there are the superstars that you hear about, who are super active, writing new languages and libraries and whatnot, but I would say that is the extreme end of the bell curve.