[richardknop]

26 is still young! I would understand if people would tell this somebody who is 56 (9 years from retirement), there might not be enough upside to changing career at such late point. But even then I'd say it might be worth it.

But 26 is still a blank canvas you can learn anything easily. I think there might be a bias as many hackers started learning programming when they were 15 years or younger so they assume it has to be like that for everybody.

[NotSammyHagar]

Yeah, that's bull shit, 26 is not too old. I'm 50+, just quit my last job where I was a principal software engineer, did 4 interviews, got 4 offers, took the one that made me director of a project (I have previous management experience too). If you keep coding and don't become just a manager, the world is open to you in software.

I have many years of experience and built up expertise, but I was in grad school until I was almost 30!