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Comment by MisterBastahrd | Hacker News Reader

I feel bad for people who believe that age beats talent.

Age doesn't beat talent but experience can. Not only that, but you can be experienced and still have all the talent you had when you were young.

There is a big tendency for young, talented devs to assume they are the smartest person and/or the best coder in the room because up until now they've always been (even in college), but at some point in their progression that stops being true. I'll even go so far as to suggest that if you are still the best coder in the room you should probably go out and find a better room.

There is a correlation between experience and talent. That's my point. Everyone crying about being unemployable as an engineer over 40 is fooling themselves. 90% of the software dev jobs out there are not at FAANG companies, and at the end of the day, clients and corporations care about getting shit done. The guy with the 20 year track record beats the fresh graduate the vast majority of the time.

FAANG companies hire old people too. I’m nearly 50 and have 30 years experience in the industry and feel quite well valued at my large cloud factory. The opportunities for learning never stop and my decades of stepping in shit in various ways is seen as a thick callused hide of wisdom. :D

please do an AMA, your career advice would be super helpful

Haha I can’t tell if this is sarcasm but I definitely don’t think I’m AMA-worthy.