[vidarh]

As someone who is 39, why is "impressiveness = achievements / age" a problem in your eyes?

Looking back at my own life, pretty much all my worthwhile achievements has come after 20, and according to that formula I'd come out very favourable against 20-25 years olds like myself.

That formula is pretty much just saying that they expect people to have more achievements the older they are, which does not seem unreasonable to me.

[solve]

No one has ever said "that's incredible for a 40 year old".

Only the young get benefit from this equation. I would bet that your achievements would not be considered great by someone who uses this equation, no matter how great they are.

The somewhat misquoted phrase that's attributed to the Alibaba CEO describes the spirit of people who use this type of thinking better than my equation will:

"If you're not rich at 35, you deserve it!"

[vidarh]

No one says "that's incredible for a 40 year old" because a 40 year old is expected to have had time enough that we don't need the qualifier of age.

In part because the world is full of examples of 40 year olds being successful, but despite the Silicon Valley bias, impressive 20-year olds or 25-year olds (or even 30-year olds) with big achievements are extreme outliers.

Even in the startup world.