Maybe it's because I just had a birthday. Or maybe it's that I recently passed my 10th anniversary of building web sites. But lately I seem to hear more people than usual wondering if this "working with the web" business isn't a younger person's game. We've also been incredibly, exhaustingly busy at work this past year, so that may have something to do with it, too. But it's a valid question, and I'll admit I've wondered the same thing myself once or twice. Working on the web means working faster and faster. You can never know or do or learn enough. Like the cosmos, every minute the web expands and speeds up, and you begin to understand you will never catch up. At 47, I understandably might not want to work so hard. I might even be forgiven if, like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, I occasionally grumble, "I'm too old for this shit." Running this fast just to stay in place is a young person's sport. There's no getting around it—these days I can't pull an all-nighter without lingering repercussions. But if building the web requires the energy, drive and audacity of youth, where does that leave those of us nearing or past the half century mark? Is there a place, a role, a need for us? After a lot of thought, I believe there is. Many older developers bring with them valuable experience with the world and human nature—experience crucial to sound decision-making. Knowledge of a wide-range of subjects and disciplines, gathered over many decades of curiosity and questing, can produce penetrating insights, reliable judgments and—dare I say it?—even wisdom. In a virtual world rushing fitfully in all directions after every new innovation or chance opportunity, aren't those qualities that might be useful? At 47, I'm not ready yet to leave the hurly-burly of the web. I think I still might have something to offer. Yes, I may not make it there as quickly as I once did, but I can see more clearly than ever where we're headed. Surely, there's a place for me still.