> "Age discrimination is definitely an issue in this industry."
Perhaps this is true for certain segments of "this industry", but, like so many blanket statements on HN, this is just false for the larger industry as a whole. Most of the jobs in "this industry" are enterprise/corporate/consultancy, and those jobs are simply not age-discriminatory. For those who seek a work environment where the latest/greatest is paramount, please prepare yourselves to deal with the consequences. For the vast majority of us, other forms of discrimination are INCREDIBLY more relevant.
>For those who seek a work environment where the latest/greatest is paramount, please prepare yourselves to deal with the consequences.
...because you will face well known and rampant age discrimination right?
The wsj article list also includes Salesforce, Nvidia, Adobe, Intel, Samsung and, IBM which I believe qualify as being corporate. But even if they were not discriminatory it would not remotely excuse those who are.
Speaking of blanket truths on HN, what percentage of ycombinator founders are over 40?
My understanding is that much of the YC evaluation comes from accomplishment density - accomplishments/time. That's pretty hard to maintain for many years, so it's natural that fewer 40 somethings meet that metric. I'm 44 and can easily chart my regression-to-the-mean over the years.
In fact, I think if somebody does maintain that accomplishment density and is interested in YC, they become a partner. :)
Yet others in this thread have explained low numbers of over 40 employees by claiming they often go on to become entrepreneurs. In that case we should see a higher precentage of founders in that older age group not a lower number.
Of course what you and others say is quite plausible. But also often contradictory. It really looks like a very real phenomenon for which intuitive but post hoc conjectures are being generated. You could do the same thing for women or any other group as well (thank goodness sensible people don't)
Ycombinator is not evil or unusual but really ageism is a very measurable, irrational problem in the industry that is undoubtedly resulting in lost efficiency and we have a choice of addressing it or just ignoring it with facile explanations.
http://www.endicottalliance.org/jobcutsreports.php just search for age, the situation is long and complicate and the corps have perfected the art of hiding layoff in plain sight, but the preference for laying off staff was the same cross countries.
>what percentage of ycombinator founders are over 40?
It seems obvious to me that even in a world with no discrimination, programs with an introductory/learning aspect that require massive drive will mostly have younger people in them, because older people with the same drive will have largely already gone through something like that.
Perhaps this is true for certain segments of "this industry", but, like so many blanket statements on HN, this is just false for the larger industry as a whole. Most of the jobs in "this industry" are enterprise/corporate/consultancy, and those jobs are simply not age-discriminatory. For those who seek a work environment where the latest/greatest is paramount, please prepare yourselves to deal with the consequences. For the vast majority of us, other forms of discrimination are INCREDIBLY more relevant.