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Comment by itsoktocry | Hacker News Reader

>ageism will cause you to be out of a job at say 60 at the latest?

Do you feel like you'll be much less productive at 60? Why would you work for a company that thinks that way? Can you no longer solve business problems by that age? We have 80 year old politicians, so I'd hope not.

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It’s hard to overstate how much I want to see this topic the same way as you do. I think, so far, I’ve only become more productive, and I don’t feel the cynicism that many seem to acquire past a certain age (“all frameworks are just the same”, “wheel is reinvented all the time” etc - I have a more nuanced view on this). I’m not really worried about my productivity at 60, but that the market will favor cheaper, superficially quicker-minded folks, who tend to be young.

No the reason why they want young people is not speed.

Managers hate mature people because they are a lot harder to command. You also run into the problem of someone being more qualified than their superior. I work in healthcare and seeing a child manager clash with a 60 year old nurse never stops being hilarious.

I'll be 60 in a couple of weeks time (I hate typing that - get off my lawn etc!). I know I'm not less productive now than I was 10, 20, 30 years ago. Maybe a bit more cynical - but then I can hide that with humour.

The one think I do feel strongly is that my current FTE job is my last one. Ageism is a real issue, when it comes to finding a job in tech when you're in your 50s; running the recruitment race in my 60s is not something I want to face. Which means I feel like I've lost the chance to walk away from my current job if anything goes wrong.

I get my pension in 7 years time: I'm looking forward to it already!

I have first hand experience with this.I am late 50s and still at top of my game in my area of expertise. It was time to move on from last job last year and had zero interest from anyone. All through my network so no cold calls either. I know for a fact those positions were filled with late 30s mid 40s people.

So my answer was luckily i retired. The interesting thing is after being in tech for 35-40 years i have no interest in any of it now. Hell after 3 weeks of retirement i didnt. I have a small farm now and play with tractors and such all day.

It doesnt matter what you feel. It matters what your employer or customers feel.

Unless you are super lucky to have own company and own product(s).

> We have 80 year old politicians,

are they any good? or do we pray for their passing so that more progressive policies can be considered?

No true Scotsman - Joe Biden is old, but plenty of young conservatives are far, far less likely to enact any progressive legislation. People age in lots of different ways, some people will face dementia in their 60s, others will be lucid into their 90s and beyond.

From what I observe of 80+ year old politicians, I find that to be more an argument in favor of ageism rather than against it.

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