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Discussion on: Forty and still a dev?

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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

I think I'm too old to understand what "remember 19*1 year != 19 years" means.

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isherwood profile image
Clint Buhs • Edited

It means that doing something for a year, then another thing for a year, and so on, 19 times, doesn't mean that you have 19 years of experience at any one thing. You don't have depth in any one area.

Or, it means that doing something for 19 years, but never learning to do it better, doesn't mean you have 19 years of experience. You've just repeated the first year 18 times. I can't say how often I encountered that while I was in home construction. Not to stereotype, but tradesmen don't tend to be the innovative type as often as those in tech are. They more often find something that they consider adequate and keep doing it, assuming that it's the best way without keeping an open mind for better ways.