Young people have a greater percent of their experience on the most modern platforms and are unlikely to "write FORTRAN in any language" (JS, Ruby, etc). They

Young people have a greater percent of their experience on the most modern platforms and are unlikely to "write FORTRAN in any language" (JS, Ruby, etc). They are also more likely to be dumber and lacking in versatility. Older people just have more experience, more knowledge, just by the fact that they have more time to accumulate more knowledge, so they may often may be more productive than 2 or 3 youngsters combined and still have time for family and other hobbies. Of course, that's only true if the older technical folks don't coast and continue to learn since when they were young. (Yes I am a 22 years old who uses modern frameworks like ruby on rails and meteor. The exact profile that software firms want to hire.)