Where did Paul say that? this feels like the opposite of what he would say.
While its slightly younger cutoff, it is very similar to what he said about startup founders (where the cutoff was 38), and it would fit with his other descriptions of age-based trends in work patterns to prefer a younger cutoff for engineers, especially if he was talking about a startup context.
Though I’ve seen it referenced without a source enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was apocryphal and distorting remembering of the preferred upper limit for startup founders that got transferred to engineers and a rounder number.
I am surprised at people who say its unlike him or the opposite of what he would say, though.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/magazine/y-combinator-sil...
"Venture capitalists have a notorious bias against older founders—“older” being relative in youth-obsessed Silicon Valley. “The cutoff in investors’ heads is 32,” Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham (now 53) told the New York Times in 2013. “After 32, they start to be a little skeptical.”"
BTW the quote is easily findable, and the value for X he used was 32.
So was the quote where it is 23-38 for who should start a startup.
http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html
It’s like PG says lots of slight variations on the same thing over time.