[rinchik]

Are they really being left out though? I understand the notion of ageism, and not at all saying it doesn't happen in software development, the point is, what if there are other factors also in play here? What if this "trend" is just a natural phenomenon?

Software Development is one of the most aggressive industries that are out there. Tech evolves daily with major trends shifting monthly. It's extremely hard to keep up!

And it's extremely easy to become "part of the road" if you don't invest heavily in your professional development by studying the "steamroller". What if older software developers are just the road, modern tech "steamroller" is rolling over? There are quite a few percent of the bright and knowledgeable older software engineers, but what about the "average" ones? Ones who got tired, have families and just don't want to be bothered with making themselves uncomfortable by trying to "keep up"? What about those who were sitting comfortably a decade with the oldest tech you can imagine that was "current" in early 2000, and now wind has changed? It seems logical to assume that a job search for those is gonna be tough!

Also about bootcamps, Erik Meijer makes an interesting point about "amateurs in our industry", that people who live, sleep, and breath code for 20+ years should be able to comfortably retire near 40, meaning this problem we are discussing here should never be a problem to begin with.