[brachi]

Do you mean it as a trap financially speaking? e.g. after certain age your salary stagnates, and your 'hireability' is reduced dramaticlly (ageism comes to mind). If so, I agree that might be true in some cases (anecdotically speaking), but not only for programming. But if you love it, what is the non financial cost of 'leaving the trap'? Isn't the real trap not improving/advancing in the things that really matter to you, because of things you can't or are very hard to control?