Most age discrimination isn't overt or explicit. It's "cultural". They don't care if you're 45, but most of these VC-funded startups don't want to hire and prom

Most age discrimination isn't overt or explicit. It's "cultural". They don't care if you're 45, but most of these VC-funded startups don't want to hire and promote people who (a) don't drink, (b) show up before 10:00 and leave before 7:00, (c) never discuss their sex lives and work and avoid others' disclosures thereof, and (d) aren't interested in moving into management, which being a 45-year-old programmer implies. But there are a few especially juvenile older people that I've seen fit in to the VC-funded culture. Also, older programmers (even those who've declined management by choice) threaten the lie on which the VC-funded world stands, which is that being a subordinate engineer (and getting jack-shit equity) at 22 is a sure path to being an exec at 27, a founder at 31, and an investor (either an angel, meaning "rich", or a VC, meaning "given a soft landing") at 35. The brutal career age-grading comes from a need to exclude those who refute the lie of promised progress.