Moneyquote: "Now I understand why older programmers complain about rampant ageism in Tech. Younger workers are cheaper, and programmer productivity is notoriously difficult to measure, so most companies opt for the cheaper option."

Wow that is so spot on, as a "generic" programmer asking $150K versus a "generic" programmer asking $75K ? Easy choice, we'll get two and double our productivity and halve the sick days! I noted that in the medical profession "General Practitioners" made the least, while specialists made the most. They were all doctors.

Specialist software categories:

Embedded Software - bringing up code without an OS, understanding hardware function and tools.

Graphics Programmer - these days understanding 3D programming with Shaders and other features common in todays GPUs

Kernel programmer - understanding the insides of the kernel and how to write code that works there.

Networking software - understanding all of the intricacies of how packets get from point A to point B, and what interferes with that and what facilitates that.

Security specialist - someone who understands what makes programs and systems break and can program fixes for them or ways to spot attempts at exploiting them.

Storage specialist - someone who understands file systems and disk drives and getting data to and from programs reliably.