Ageism sucks. And I see older folks constantly subjected to it. But let's be clear, ageism isn't *just* towards older people. A common occurance is older people trying to pull rank on younger developers, even when the younger devs are clearly more qualified. It seems the more meaningful distinction is not age or years of experience - but whether or not you care about your work, and have continued to refine your taste and explore new ideas. Maybe we need a new metric: "Years of new experience".

My manager keeps pressuring me to go for a promotion, but the payoff is terrible. I was passed over last year, so now I feel good about my decision to resist. It's basically endless paperwork and corporate politics for a tiny bump in salary. I'd much rather continue writing code remotely, do my job, and stay under the radar. Is it okay to resist the push to move up?

What’s your take on oversized Pull Requests? Knowing that it’s the norm of AI assisted development, automation hasn’t still caught up with humans reviewing the changes.. I would and still reject overly large PRs for reasons outside of testing and fixtures.

I am going into a second round interview for PNC Bank as Software Engineer (Java) role. I'm feeling nervous but good nonetheless. Are there any tips or anything you would be willing to share with me?

Has software engineering shifted from “building to last” to “building to replace”? Earlier, we'd build a system, take it to production, and it would run for years with small enhancements and maintenance. Now. every few years there's a push to rewrite everything with a new tech stack, often because the existing system is considered "outdated" or "not sustainable." Are frequent rewrites driven by real business needs, or are we too quick to replace systems instead of evolving them?