I worked with a guy who was over 65 and still working at a tech startup, and he was the best guy we had. Unfortunately passed away about a year ago but they do exist, there are just a lot fewer of them.
Yes, they do exist and when they have that kind of passion for building things they usually are great developers. I know that my 36 year old self is a much better developer that my 26 year old self.
The lens of experience allows you to see things very differently. The business knowledge you amass in the various field is extraordinary. It it one of the few industry where you field of primary business while change several times in your carrer.
That breadth really allows you to see thing differently than someone who stays in Real Estate or Manufacturing their entire carrer. As you get older it seems that, that information become more and more interesting to you. You start to connect independent pieces of puzzels people did not even know existed and come up with novel views on how the world works.
It really is a shame that people don't survive but the hyper boom bust nature of software dev is just too much on a good deal of people who just want to make a living.
