Every single person who calls you “inspirational” or “impressive” is actually revealing their own age prejudice. A programmer still programming while growing old is not something to marvel at, it is the normal state of things. Please do not allow people to put you on a pedestal; this would only strengthen the age prejudice present in the industry.
Note: You deserve considerable respect and deference for the experience and skill you have no doubt acquired over the years. Also, since there are so few people like you who started programming in those years, you are an unusual and notable person. But don’t let anyone insinuate that it would have been normal for you to have stopped programming by now. It is not.
This comment is emblematic of the confusing times we are in. You cannot say anything - even "congratulations" - without stepping on someone's toes. Every assumption undoubtedly reveals some sort of partiality, privilege and discrimination. There are so many assumptions from which we must extricate ourselves that we are effectively prohibited from saying anything.
> Every single person who calls you “inspirational” or “impressive” is actually revealing their own age prejudice.
I agree with this with the word "impressive," but with the word "inspirational," I don't think we can paint with such a broad brush.
Consider that many companies have career progression tracks that escalate engineers out of hands-on engineering roles into e.g. architecture roles or managerial roles. Add on top of that the number of people who burn out doing something they love because they find themselves no longer enjoying it now that it's their job.
I can't find hard numbers for or against my hypothesis, but anyone who stays committed to their passion as their line of work for a sustained period of time, even passing through the stages of burnout that might arise, would likely be inspirational to others in the field who might've burned out or feel like they're about to.
That said, your acute awareness of age bias is something I think more of us in tech (especially infosec in my case) need to actively embrace.
So people complimenting are actually prejudiced against? That's quite a stretch. It's impressive, if nothing else, the span of computer history he's witnessed and continuously was a part of. 63 was practically since the beginning. Also, most people at 74 either don't want to work anymore or (more likely) aren't able to due to their health. So it's doubly inspirational that he/she has the same enthusiasm at 74 that they had at 20.
That doesn't reveal anything other than the state of the industry.
It is a new industry. Many people have been around for most of it or at least large chunks of it. It's impressive when, out of the 60 odd years of a profession existing, one person has been going at it for 57 years of it.
Ethics are completely dead JauntyHatAngle and the atmosphere is no longer one of irreverent fun and learning but chilling effects, groupthink and rudderless management I could write a whole paragraph about it but 57 years ago this was viewed as a new frontier whereas now it's literally a war zone
Note: You deserve considerable respect and deference for the experience and skill you have no doubt acquired over the years. Also, since there are so few people like you who started programming in those years, you are an unusual and notable person. But don’t let anyone insinuate that it would have been normal for you to have stopped programming by now. It is not.