As a late-40's engineer/programmer/admin, I've been fortunate to stay technical for my 25 years or so, but I've seen the other side of this argument. We had a guy who was in his later 50's, as a top-level "tech" pay grade, who wrote some Perl twenty-something years ago. He was given 3 simple tasks in Visual Basic, and couldn't complete a single one. The company did an RIF, and he just barely made the cut to get an early retirement. He took it, knowing he'd be let go if he didn't.<p>So, yeah, as a middle-aged guy, these stories scare my pants off. However, I think this other guy's story is pretty common. I suspect that there are a lot of people who, thanks to some early success at being technical in a large company, rise through the pay scale, and then never update their skill set. These people NEED to go. They're a drag on an already-cripplingly-overencumbered organization.<p>You have to keep learning. Forever. After over a decade happily coding with Rails, I'm now learning Java for web applications. Yikes. I can't say I'm enjoying the experience, but I AM learning a lot.<p>Just throwing out a counterpoint. I'm not sure that taking the money saved, and hiring a small army of Indian college grads is the answer, but that's a whole different discussion.