A good article that makes valid points about the difficulties of keeping up in rapidly-changing fields. Since I'm "old", and have a foot in the worlds of medic

A good article that makes valid points about the difficulties of keeping up in rapidly-changing fields. Since I'm "old", and have a foot in the worlds of medicine and programming, it's apparent to me there's not that much difference in the "aging curve" in these occupations. The parallels include the explosion of new knowledge, or at least variations on the old knowledge, that a practitioner needs to keep up with. In programming it's languages and frameworks, in medicine it's discoveries (basic science), new drugs and techniques, and aspects of the regulatory environment. In either case a few years out of school/training it becomes daunting to keep up. I should add here a particular peeve, the proliferation of abbreviations and acronyms is way out of control. It's nearly impossible to read an article without encountering an avalanche of incomprehensible ABBRs. What's worse, the same ABBR is often used to mean entirely different things one article to the next. Cross-field usage is a naturally incongruous extension of the confusion, though at times it's humorous. What the article doesn't emphasize is the blizzard of details to keep up with is just one part of the experience. As years in the trenches becomes decades the value of "time in grade" becomes evident. The ability to size up the demands of a complex problem, to have a clear idea of where to enter the path of its management, and calm assurance growing out of having been down the road before are all won only by virtue of real experience. Having done what I have for 40 years, it took me only 33 years to realize I didn't know what I was doing, and that's when I got really good at it. Therein is an essential wisdom that time and effort alone confer, and can't be gained in any other way.