I think this hits the nail on the head. Ageism often goes hand-in-hand with other negatives and is a warning sign about a workplace. Perhaps, ageism does us older devs a favour because we'll get screened out quicker and not have the misfortune to interview at horrible companies ; That said, sometimes older devs don't help themselves. At a place I previously worked at, colleagues my age or older would make sexist/racist/disabled-mocking jokes, utterly inappropriate in the office but they'd got away with for years. The younger folks generally knew not to do this, and were offended, but then often 20-somethings while careful not to be racist or homophobic would simultaneously be blatantly ageist against their older colleagues. I got treated badly by some younger colleagues there actually, suffice to say it was symptomatic of issues in that company and I found a better job.