I&#x27;m early 40s at the moment. I love technology, and love programming and system tinkering&#x2F;admin in particular. I&#x27;m currently a CTO&#x2F;CIO in a niche industry, although I write code almost daily and participate in various technical trenches many CIOs wouldn&#x27;t venture into on a daily basis due to lack of resources.<p>I am sadly terrified of getting older. Not because I fear death (well, maybe a little), but I fear the silver ceiling this industry seems to place on many. Sure, the CIO&#x2F;CTO thing might help, but I&#x27;m not banking on it. I&#x27;ve seen so many qualified folks get replaced by younger, unqualified ones just because of the way IT tends to favor the young.<p>Now I look at my own daughter, who is very interested in following in my footsteps and is already programming and Lego mindstorm&#x27;ing, and I really, sincerely hesitate to push her in that direction. I love the craft and think it&#x27;s very personally rewarding as a creative outlet, but not only is there this silver ceiling, but to stay current you are <i>constantly</i> required to be learning. I spend  almost all my spare time working to stay current. I see friends who are lawyers or accountants, and while I would probably die of boredom in either field, there seems to be nowhere near the level of effort to stay current in those fields.<p>While I don&#x27;t think the constant learning requirement has a solution, I really hope to get some time in the future thinking deeply about the silver ceiling problem. Not just for me, but for my tech friends. I personally employee two 60+ folks on my team, and they&#x27;re great resources. I wish other companies would view them in this way. It seems there is something which could be done...even if it&#x27;s a company which distinguishes itself by making a point of hiring senior, aging folks for solving problems which require that level of experience. However, that of course has it&#x27;s own difficult problems to solve (namely, a senior employee likely has a lot of his&#x2F;her own personal overhead to cover, so salary requirements will be understandably greater). Still, if the problems were out there, perhaps a company like that could thrive. Perhaps.<p>Anyway, just the ramblings of a early forties techie who thinks&#x2F;worries a lot about this. One day I&#x27;ll take action either way, because there will come a time where there is no other choice ;)