> someone who is 45 can't find a job when what they know is Ada, Cobol and Forth? I'm 53, know many engineers 45+, none of them are (still) hawking their Cobol

> someone who is 45 can't find a job when what they know is Ada, Cobol and Forth? I'm 53, know many engineers 45+, none of them are (still) hawking their Cobol/Ada/Forth skills. Just like the young 'uns, we learned C++, Python, Java, Javascript; we use node.js (if it's indicated), we read HN and other tech sites, etc. If we don't, then we're idiots and deserve not to get hired, and we know that. One thing I've discovered is that knowing the new stuff in conjunction with some of the lost arts (messy old C builds, hardware-related mysteries, debugging without debuggers) gives me some skills that are not easy to come by, and that is a real advantage getting work. There will always be legacy systems that are 10-15 or more years out of date, and a market to keep them running.