Last night we celebrated our friend’s birthday. He turned 50. I’ll call him ‘Andy’ to protect the guilty.

And while a lot has been written about age discrimination, at the risk of being politically incorrect, I’m bored by it all. My sense is there’s more discrimination around being ‘un-contemporary’ than discrimination around a ‘number’.

As I looked at ‘Andy’ with a critical eye, it was evident to me he’s one of these people who could pass for early forties or mid fifty’s. Kind of timeless. The fact that he had lost a number of pounds and was in good shaped helped that image a lot. As did his contemporary, but not too much so, clothing. ‘Andy’ had just completed a half marathon.

His slightly younger brother sported a new ‘Droid’ phone, out just a couple of months if that. Everyone at the table, for the most part, was not only well versed in technology, but embraced it, some early adopters.

The table was upbeat in terms of where they were in their personal lives, in their careers. Several of us had successfully reinvented ourselves and were enjoying new careers. There was a vibrant, positive aura to the table.

How contemporary, how vibrant, how you appear, and how much energy you have has everything to do with landing a great job.

Did I mention that we closed the restaurant that night?