[jack_tripper]

Jesus. If at 40 you're already seeing yourself old and worried about survival something must be wrong.

At 40 you're barely at the halfway point of your career since we're gonna have to work till our 70's anyway, so buckle up for another 30+ years.

[ilaksh]

This is ageism and it's rampant and very problematic. He is ageist against himself almost as much as society is.

You should not need to do anything special to be a 40 or 50 year old (or whatever) and fit in with a group.

This is one of the last 'isms' that society has yet to tackle. But society will eventually become less ageist as it ages more and more.

[jack_tripper]

> He is ageist against himself almost as much as society is.

I think he's just trying to be proactive with an insurance policy to cushion the blow since societal ageism is completely out of your control.

You might not believe in ageism being real, but if the job market does, then you're shit out of luck, so might as well start prepping for it.

>But society will eventually become less ageist as it ages more and more.

I doubt it. Employers will just demand more immigration that's more youthful and more exploitable or just offshore more.

Where I live in EU, there really isn't a huge market for white collar workers over 50 despite society already skewing quiet old. One compounding issue is that in my country once you hit 50 you get firing protections so nobody wants to hire someone they won't be able to fire, especially if the industry is full of ambitious young blood like in SW.

[xboxnolifes]

> But society will eventually become less ageist as it ages more and more.

Society is hundreds to thousands of times older than you or I. The US is a gerontocracy. I don't think the age of society has any relation to how agiest it is. The current and next culture regarding age will die with it's population and the next young generation will come with their own culture surrounding age.

[AnimalMuppet]

"Forty is the old age of youth. Fifty is the youth of old age."

The thing about 40 is, you're not old, but you see your youth dying. If your identity is in being young, sexy, fit, athletic, then that may be brutal. Depends on what your identity is in, and how you handle the loss of it.

[jack_tripper]

Good news is, I was never sexy, fit or athletic, so I will never be disappointed.

[xboxnolifes]

A bit too many people in my family have died in their 40s and 50s due to health reasons for me to not consider it at least somewhat old.

[eweise]

I'm sixty and still don't see myself as old. 41 is still young.

[cmsj]

I'm merely 47 and I don't really feel like I'm any older than I was in my 20s. Smarter hopefully, wiser certainly, but I never really completely put away childish things.

[klipklop]

In the Bay Area job market at 40+ you are 4/5 done with your working career at a high level of pay as a IC. It’s cruel, but post 40 and especially post 50 you are at risk of being let go and never find a similar paying job again. Especially in this job market.

Only way to prevent this is to be a director or unusually gifted as an engineer. Otherwise you are the old guy that wants too much money. I hate that the industry is like this but unless you are very high in your field your value to tech employers reaches zero unless your career has developed to a high level.