I've worked with two types of engineers: 1) Those who believe in age stereotypes 2) Those who don't There isn't some cliff you fall off of and become, "too ol

I've worked with two types of engineers: 1) Those who believe in age stereotypes 2) Those who don't There isn't some cliff you fall off of and become, "too old." That is one of the central lies of ageism. You're suddenly too old to be cool, you're too old to learn new things, you're too old to start something new, you're too old, too old, too old. So get it in now, while you're young! Work hard, put your head down because once you're over that cliff it's done! You'll be too old to be a programmer anymore! You'll be stuck in your ways, a crufty old fossil, someone who only shows up and doesn't learn anything new. I'm getting older. I'm picking up skateboarding. In recent years I've learned how to formally verify systems using model checkers and theorem provers. I've picked up on category theory and abstract algebra. I started streaming my side project to learn how to implement a database from scratch in Haskell. You'd think that I should either go into management or find another career. This is a young person's game! You have to keep up with all the new technology! Old people can't keep up! The lambda calculus turned 84 this year. Binary trees have not changed much. There was a paper released eight years ago that showed us how to implement co-ordination free operations on B+-Trees. Hooray. The real innovation still happens in small steps at the periphery. Ageism makes us believe that our best years are short and fleeting. That all of our work will be behind us for the majority of our lives. To talk about expertise as a deficiency and experience as useless. Your best years may yet be ahead of you.