I know programmers who programmed Fortran in the 70's, Lisp in the 80's, C++ in the 90's, then switched to Java, now programs python, and is learning Scala. Just because you're over 30 doesn't mean you cannot learn new things.
However I'm guessing the assumption that they can't might be another reason why 23 year old startup founders are loath to hire them.
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I know programmers who programmed Fortran in the 70's, Lisp in the 80's, C++ in the 90's, then switched to Java, now programs python, and is learning Scala. Just because you're over 30 doesn't mean you cannot learn new things.
However I'm guessing the assumption that they can't might be another reason why 23 year old startup founders are loath to hire them.
I myself went from C to C++ to Perl to Java to PHP and Lisp and Python and Ruby and Haskell and tons of other stuff.
But see my comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1439535