I get that it’s a problem — I have many friends in this boat. But absolutely consistently, when I talk to them about how current their skills are, they either scoff about the need to stay current, parroting old lines like, “All programming languages are basically the same” (they aren’t), or they sink into despair about being old dogs who can’t learn new tricks.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but I firmly deny that this is just about me being lucky. I remain highly employable (and highly sought-after — I get head-hunted multiple times a week) specifically because I’ve made a long discipline of constant learning. The difference between young and old programmers is solely that the young ones know they have to be learning aggressively, and throw themselves into it; they older ones too often get comfortable coasting on what they already know.

It’s just plain hard work, and the time to start is at least five years before you are in danger of aging out of the business. Working your way back in is hard; staying in isn’t, provided you are hammering on it a bit more every day.