Age-related discrimination is real and it is rampant in the tech industry. While many people get hurt by this sort of discrimination, it is simply the mundane outcome of rational, productivity-maximizing hiring and project assignment decisions in tech teams across the industry. Incentives drive the underlying behavior, and these incentives intersect with the natural short-sightedness, ruthlessness, and selfishness that exists in each of us.

Some of the decision-makers are aware of their discriminatory behavior, others are in denial. Often it is the nature of many engineers (who may find themselves in a leadership position) to also have a somewhat diminished sense of empathy, and this adds to the potential for all sorts of discrimination to occur.

Whatever its origin, this nasty environmental factor is not going to away without some serious social engineering. We can exploit it, or cope with it, depending on where we are in life. We can also try to kill it. And we should, because we are only getting older. If enough people change what they do, we can all collectively benefit.

Sort of like planting trees in our neighborhood.

Ridiculously, I first felt age-related discrimination when I was only 25. More recently, I watched one partner in a rapidly expanding tech company tell an unemployed 55 year old developer (who was asking about what kinds of people the company is looking for) that the company was looking to hire young grads from the university. While this was at an informal gathering of developers, the insensitivity of it was palpable.

But sensitivity does not help a tech company survive. The young programmer possesses a naivete and a drive to learn that is prized, and at a low price. The old programmer possesses an equally valuable experience level, but at a high price. The advantages and disadvantages of each are clear, but short-term answers to cost contraints rule over the long-term benefit of experience.

This is because experience can be learned, and naivete cannot. Usually.

If you are an aging programmer, get into the habit of unlearning. Stop being good at something old, and start being bad at something new. Take on what seems to be a stupid, newfangled technology that does not appear to be a better solution than the older solution (that you happen to know inside and out).

Let go of your advantages. And plant a tree or two.