Is software development a field you can spend your entire life in or its like professional football, the older you get and companies don't want you anymore and they're seeking young talent?

I need to know where i might end up in 20 years time

As in, will a young cool npm --save startup hire ye? Who knows. Personally I have no clue if they would. But as far as having a job as long as one continues to learn as many technologies as possible instead of being a one trick pony then he or she will be good.

Talking to older devs and exdevs, it's much more likely that you will burn out than become useless

@AleCx04 that's a fair response, thank you

@gorsamp what do they resort to when they burn out?

@the-dawn teaching science, writing books, managers, even music, a good dev is smart enough to be able to switch to most anything.

@gorsamp i guess id actually prefer a managerial role. Thank u