I think this overstates the case somewhat.
More of the most significant accomplishments in almost any field are performed by the young than by any of the other older age groups. This would not be true if people in their 50s were really the equal of people in their 20s.
In some fields (medicine, law, PhD level science or even engineering) one is not even fully trained until the late 20's or early 30's. Granted, a 52-year old cardiologist would be less capable of the 30-hour rotations of residency than a 26-year old fresh medical school graduate. However, which would you choose to perform bypass surgery on yourself ?
Granted that IT is a field which bears a closer resemblance to NFL football than the fields mentioned above. However, in terms of semantic knowledge, isn't there some carryover from older to newer programming languages in what constitutes good design and development practice ? Are you saying the ability to churn out code for hours on end is the sole or primary competitive factor ?
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