Stereotypical Tech Guy

There's a great taco place in SF which I love (and at which I'm a regular). Today one of the folks who work there asked me what I did for work. Our conversation follows.

Taco Guy: "So what do you do for work?"
Me: "Oh, I work in tech. I do corporate development."
Guy: "No way! I'd never have guessed you worked in tech."
Me: "Seriously? Umm... Why?"
Guy: "Well, first of all you treat me like a person. And second you're way too old."

So...

1) while I appreciate the compliment, if "works in tech" now equals "treats retail and food service employees as if they're untouchable" in the minds of people in SF who work outside of tech, then tech has a major problem to resolve.

2) if people outside of tech can easily see the ageism bias within tech - it's time to stop debating its existence and start trying to fix it.

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