[lordkrandel]

Please define your success style. There are versatile programmers who can handle all the stack and mentor others, developer who deliver overly great products even under constraints, programmers who make lots of money, and specialists who are a point of reference for a specific technology. There also are very good all-around developers like John Carmack who also made lots of money... But also Thompson and Ritchie fall in the 1% for sure in my opinion. If you have the problem solving and algorythmic skills you need to be a good developer, age is not really important.