A recent study that analyzed 80,000 profiles on Stack Overflow found that older developers are more proficient than younger developers even in newer programming languages. They analyzed the reputation of answers on the Q&A site in different languages, and programmers apparently continued to have answers with better reputations, up until at least 50 years of age.
You have to take into account that perhaps as you grow older, you feel less of a need to answer questions unless you’re really good and know that people need you. Regardless, I think it’s amazing that in the developer community, people who are older not only find the need to help and teach the younger generation, but they’re actually outperforming them.
I feel like this isn’t the case with all industries. I would love to understand how you can make all industries work that way, where the older generations are not only engaged in the trade, but continue to learn and teach younger generations. I feel like the general workforce would be happier if that were the case.
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