I didn't realise this was an assertion scoring debate rather than just a discussion, but here goes: * I have experienced what software development was like 25y

I didn't realise this was an assertion scoring debate rather than just a discussion, but here goes: * I have experienced what software development was like 25yrs ago, when it also took a lot longer to gain seniority and responsibility. * I started my career in a different engineering field. I saw a very different age<->seniority progression than the quick one in software. In fact that was why I switched to tech even if software was slower back then than now. The combination of both those was the basis for claiming that young software devs have been in an extraordinarily privileged position in recent years. Do you have any idea what it's like outside software? You're going to have to make a better case that young software engineers these days experience ageism at a similar level to other professions or time periods. It is now an industry that skews young and quickly discards age. You'd also need to distinguish between lack of experience and just being young to claim it's ageism. And the age groups you were deriding were the ones that broke down those barriers for younger devs in the first place. Did you consider they would've experienced worse and sought to change it? Your non specific comment seemed like an extremely self centered view of the wider industry that lacked perspective and contradicted a near universally understood situation. You were the one making the extraordinary claim that needed backup. Your incredibly broad generalisation got a necessarily broad reply which you're now complaining about just being an empty assertion. You did nothing to elaborate about your experience was - what did you expect? Maybe if you'd been more specific about what you've faced you would've got different answers.