Earlier quoted context omitted.
Middle years!? How long are these "middle years" supposed to last? I'm 22 years into my career and there's no way I've hit the mid point yet. It still feels like a joke to have a job title with the word "senior" in it.
How long have you been programming full time though? I find too many people on HN are 25 and count "15 years experience" because they started programming at 10. It's just not the same thing, especially when most people only count professional experience (and full time at that). 15 years of programming experience < 10 years full time experience in an enterprise or startup environment.
I'm counting from when I dropped out of college and started working full-time. Maybe only 21 years ago, it's a little hazy now. I'd been writing code for seven or eight years at that point.