Conversely, too much practical experience can lead to a lack of fundamental understanding, innovation, and helplessness.

I can’t stand it when an engineer wastes hours looking for a library, instead of even considering actually writing code themselves. Many just can’t because they’re so accustomed to glueing together other people’s code.

Of course, I’ve worked with academic types that can never stop theorizing and actually be productive. That have zero discipline.

There has to be a balance. But yes, fresh out of school == fairly worthless for anything I’ve worked on ever.