I completely agree with the OP. About 10 years ago I created a very focused professional blog to improve my writing even though I'd already written an O'Reilly book, just as an excuse to hone my skills.
I just created a blog series about building your own language in JS, just because I've always wanted to do it. There's definitely freedom that comes with age. (and goes away with small children)
https://www.pubnub.com/blog/2016-09-26-4-tutorials-create-la...
I've found that some good engineers find a role as developer evangelists, using both their technical and writing skills. Maybe check out DevRelCon.
Same; I find it a bit terrifying that 35+ is considered 'old' in our industry...
We tend to think of old programmers as these ancient neckbeards who write COBOL and FORTRAN and grew up on usenet programming PDP machines; but the reality is that 40+ year old programmers today were kids in the 90s, were in their 20s when languages like JS, Python and PHP became popular, and played quake 3 in their early twenties.
BTW I'm not doing straight-up programmer work, more of senior architect type roles in the past years, so it might be more "acceptable" in the industry to still be spending time with an IDE at my age in this context.
That doesn't work so well anymore when the young can build their own web business without any of the contacts and wisdom required before. My generation (x) are going to have to keep working a lot longer.
Firstly, how this situation shared by the OP and many others is pure insanity. That the very people who grew up with this technology during the baby years are now struggling to have a place now that it really has taken off.
Secondly, for those in their mid-30's and onward, to realize how immensely skilled they likely are at writing (if not already recognizing this fact). One of my favorite parts of staying up to date in this industry is getting to read every and any type of work/post/article from the older guys (still must admit that 37 doesn't feel old to me). Because your time was spent communicating primarily electronically, this skill has spilled over into creative writing and all other forms, which makes for incredibly well-written pieces which keep me going to this very day. So thank you for that.
Thirdly, how amazing it is that a person can now come up with an idea, build out the details and launch the website within 24 hours if truly determined. Loved the website, definitely think that as younger generations start to take advantage of the current tech and build their own on top of it, that there will be a need to differentiate between the various abilities/experience of devs.
Nice work.