grey•beard, n. and adj.
/ˈɡrāˌbird/
In Information Technology and specifically Computer Science, the term "Grey beard" or "Greybeard" is used as a droll, sarcastic way to describe any person who is older. Typically, a Grey Beard in IT will be very specific about methodology and have well-reasoned arguments about why the methods they are using are superior to current ideas and methods. Many times, they're not wrong!
I placed an emphasis on many times, because the corollary tofo that is many times they are wrong. As a self-identified greybeard, I considered myself to have a time worn methodology, with my own arsenal of well-reasoned arguments to support them; however, one of the truisms of programming is hand ten different developers the same task, you will most universally receive ten unique solutions. To phrase it another way, with an age-old chestnut, there is more than one way to skin a cat*.
To the extent that the discipline of computer science is a science, regarding the rigorous study of computational dynamics and their abstraction, P ≠ NP, naming things, et. al. most of the rigorous part goes out the window when it comes time to implement a solution to a given problem. There exist a multitudinous host of development tools, source control, database technologies, frameworks, patterns, conventions, and 'standards' that can be employed. These themselves are combined in a near infinite array of permutations. All of this is to say that in general take whatever road you'd like, you'll probably still get to Rome (substitute the solution for Rome).
Bringing this all around to my point. There is a fine line between 'this is the way that it has always been done', and 'intractable devotion to well worn paths you've travelled before'. At my most recent place of employment I found the younger and newer developers to be an incredible wealth of knowledge on the new and hip ways of coding. Sometimes it was new for newness' sake, but just as often there was a very usefull method of fulfilling the requirements in a new, and more efficient way. For ultimately we developers are a lazy lot. If we find ourselved being burdened with mindless and tedious tasks we WILL find a way to optimize and automate it, so that we can get back to what we really love to do, solving problems!
* The author in no way condones the actual skinning of cats, most especially his own