>>I was mostly trying to provide a counterbalance to the "older is always better" opinion I've seen as well.
Older isn't always better, simply because older isn't a separate species or class of humans. Put simply young people eventually become old. If you had major human enterprise issues while you were young, chances are those will remain when you get old.
This extends to other things too.
Why do you think retirement is so hard for people who didn't save well enough in 20s and 30s? Nobody can wake up one day, and run a ultra marathon. Processes for making something like this happen start way early in life.
I was mostly trying to provide a counterbalance to the "older is always better" opinion I've seen as well. I was lucky enough early in my career to have a myriad of stellar mentors - both old and young, and learned to simply listen to what folks have to say.
As I get older I do understand how hard it is to keep up with the latest thing in tech, while also handling other responsibilities in life. I almost always tend towards the grumpy guy ranting about the latest fad, so this comment is largely out of character!
I thought I'd toss it in my earlier comment - but it's also selection bias at play here. The guys in their 40's looking for work are likely of a different type than those in their 20's. The stellar candidates who have decades of career behind them typically have a strong social network that places them before they even look at a job board. This is an area where I feel ageism is very real, and kind of terrifies me a little should I find myself in that position.