> cost more in salary
If the salaries that show up in HN posts are true, this is a no.
> cost more in health care
My only health care needs in the past 30 years have been a couple of dental cleanings per year.
> have been known to push back [...] and to not get swept up in current fads.
Ok, you've got me on this one. I do keep up with new languages, libraries, etc. I've also lived through enough hype cycles to separate the good stuff from the fluff.
I hate to be disagreeable but that might be an example of past observations not necessarily predicting future ones.
The answer here, I feel, is to slowly phase recipients to medicare to offset some of the costs.
Even better if medicare were for all; or outright remove the private sector and the employer from paying for our health insurance.
I'm in a weird spot career wise because I turned down 3 management roles to oversee multiple teams and now have to signal my non-interest in stepping out of team leadership and into a staff engineering role.
I just really like managing ICs in the day to day and everything that would make me good at those other roles is incidental to me liking managing ICs.