Basically, the latter, but I'd like to get back to making money. It just hasn't been an option.
I'm not kidding. The door was slammed on me, quite hard (I think part of it was because I live in New York. New York's ageism problem is much worse than Silicon Valley's). I'm very fortunate, in being able to work on my own. I can't imagine what it must be like for the folks that don't have that option.
That does suck. I guess there are different approaches you could take to work around it, e.g. spamming more companies or filtering out certain types of company, what kind of numbers did you put in? Do you think an early, unpleasant rejection could have discouraged you prematurely?
Curious if you think some sort of independent contractor style would work in your situation? I'm not experienced in that type of workstyle, but it seems like companies with less long term investment in training, benefits etc would care less about age, as long as you deliver.