I am 53 and remain an individual contributor and code about 50% of my time. The rest of the time is spent in reviews, debugging problems, operations etc.
Some thoughts.
1) you have to really enjoy crafting code, and building things. then, age wouldnt matter at all, ie, good, well designed and crafted code doesnt respect age.
2) you can look back at all of the things you have built with pride and fondness of a parent looking at their children (cicero said this on old age as well)
3) set the ego aside and focus on the craft.. easier said than done because the young-uns sometimes throw their weight around and that grates
4) with experience, you can see through BS, and poor designs off the bat, ie you have better intuition for systems in general
5) it is likely you have improved EQ which helps with working with others regardless of age
6) you have to enjoy the process of continuous learning which is rather difficult at a later age - but the nature of our work involves rapid change. what helps with age is that we have built models and many a time, the new tech just recycles older ideas and algorithms.
Yes these are great points! Also a very rewarding thing for me is to see people I have mentored/helped/managed grow in their careers. I worked with them when they were wee developers and now they are senior staff level
1) you have to really enjoy crafting code, and building things. then, age wouldnt matter at all, ie, good, well designed and crafted code doesnt respect age.
2) you can look back at all of the things you have built with pride and fondness of a parent looking at their children (cicero said this on old age as well)
3) set the ego aside and focus on the craft.. easier said than done because the young-uns sometimes throw their weight around and that grates
4) with experience, you can see through BS, and poor designs off the bat, ie you have better intuition for systems in general
5) it is likely you have improved EQ which helps with working with others regardless of age
6) you have to enjoy the process of continuous learning which is rather difficult at a later age - but the nature of our work involves rapid change. what helps with age is that we have built models and many a time, the new tech just recycles older ideas and algorithms.