[sadcodemonkey]

For myself, while the learning curve is "longer" as I've gotten older, it also shoots sharply upwards as the time spent on the skill acquisition increases. Age has a magnification effect at the tail end.

I'm in my late 40s and I do pick up new technical skills a bit slower than younger folks. But because I have a lot of experience, I'm able to more quickly grasp various contextual aspects of those skills: how/why they are useful, how they compare to previous skills that tried to solve the same problem, the hidden costs and implications, etc. These matter a lot in the practical, everyday application of skills.

I find that younger people have a really hard time with those contextual aspects, or they don't think it's that important... until they discover they do.