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That's why all the best programmers are the oldest guys in the room, they've been at the game longest...

That's not even close to true. I've worked in more than one shop where the 19-23yo kid fresh out of high school/college is 10x better than most of the 40-50s. Or, in a few cases, infinitely better than the guys in their 50s who are -100x (it required weeks/months to undo the damage when they finally left).

There's something to be said for experience, but keep in mind the old adage about "10 years of experience versus 1 year of experience repeated 10 times".

I see some programmers that work at it, but after 5 years their level is just as it was when they started out.

At the same time, there are others who grow their skill at an amazing rate, going from almost clueless to great over like 2 years.

(Assuming same workplace, similar tasks)

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