I didn't start programming until the shockingly (!!!!) late age of 23 or so. I hated my first year computer science papers with a passion. But it's grown to be

I didn't start programming until the shockingly (!!!!) late age of 23 or so. I hated my first year computer science papers with a passion. But it's grown to be something I love, and I like to consider myself at least adopted by the culture. I owe a lot of my skills to patient, older hackers on IRC and very much consider myself part of that 'tribe'. I also think what you fail to take into account is that peoples software skills often plateau. They'll soak up lots of stuff in the first 3 years then won't have any motivation to improve because they're good enough. I'd argue that attitude is much more an indication of skill than n number of years programming. So in a sense I do kind of understand your bias. Our field is full of people who decided "the pay is pretty decent and they were always kind of good with computers.". But it's entirely possible to become a "hacker" at later age. (Also as an aside, I wish more people would post controversial stuff on their main account. They're just make-believe internet points).