That said, I agree with the idea that hacker culture is not something a CS major can impart, and that it helps to have an early start. Hacker culture isn't age

That said, I agree with the idea that hacker culture is not something a CS major can impart, and that it helps to have an early start. Hacker culture isn't ageist. Hacker culture doesn't give a shit whether you're male, female, 86 or 15. Technology didn't develop an ageism problem on its own. It inherited the narcissism and chickenhawking of the old-style MBA culture that colonized it. I get into it in this blog post: https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/vc-istan-6-the-isms-of-venture-funded-technology/ https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/vc-istan-6-t... Age discrimination didn't come from us, not originally. It was imposed on us by a bunch of clueless, uncultured moneymen who somehow decided it shouldn't be socially acceptable to be old and a full-time programmer. That age discrimination works immensely to the benefit of the leading VCs, as well, because of the time pressure that an artificially shortened career imposes.