Re: FW: Age/Experience

Martin wrote:
>If it were just age I'd agree, but I find it interesting to know just
>how long some of these folks have been in the industry, particularly the
>more frequent posters. Business practices as well as technical solutions
>get discussed here, and knowing someone has 20 plus years of experience
>is likely to add some weight (for me, at least) to their argument.

There's an old saying:  "Never trust anyone over 30!"  Yes,
experience does count for something.  But long years in the
business may also mean attachment to old obsolete thinking.

Many of the technologies currently in vogue did not exist
when I quit school 21 years ago.  Back then, the latest
thing intended to "save the programming world" was Ada. But
technological events quickly overtook the language, and now
who cares about Ada?  Who even remembers what Ada looked
like?  (BTW, it was sort of like Pascal with hints of PL/I
and COBOL.)

Fact is, it is too easy for programmers to become "set in
their ways".  There's often a tremendous investment (both
emotional and financial) in learning a particular tech, and
so there's often reluctance in learning new things that
might be better.  I've often seen people say "This tool is
the best", when they really mean "This tool is what I know
the best."

My point is that it is often the younger programmers who
have to blaze the new trails and show the way for us stodgy
old-timers.

Hans (44/20)

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com