I'm 55+ and left the field ages ago, but I experienced this in my late 30s and 40s since the field was and apparently still is mostly dominated by people in the

I'm 55+ and left the field ages ago, but I experienced this in my late 30s and 40s since the field was and apparently still is mostly dominated by people in their 20s, which from an overall point of view can also be a good thing. It's not their fault however; workers in the IT field are often regarded as numbers, exchangeable commodities that can be moved around at will by HR. "I know a team of smart guys very prolific in C++" becomes "I have 5 C++ resources", so treating them as machines where the newest one is always a better version of the older one is just a matter of time.