[casralad]

>30 is more commonly a point where people in our society start to get a sense of their actual career path and shift from "consumers" of the current culture to "architects" of the next culture

An insightful and eloquent observation that matches my experience in the workplace. In my thirties, I started to have career opportunities tangential to programming, paths and directions I could have followed into management, marketing, architecture, or hardware. I chose to stay with programming because I liked it, and still like it now that I'm out of my thirties. You are not locked in to anything, no matter what your title or role is today, and you'll learn more from inside than from on the sidelines.