I agree with almost everything. Talent and experience make a difference, but programmer productivity is situational. Some teams and projects bring out the best

I agree with almost everything. Talent and experience make a difference, but programmer productivity is situational. Some teams and projects bring out the best in everyone. And I've had bosses and customers and team members who make sure no one is very productive. Working with legacy code is a skill too. I don't think it's true that a skilled programmer will necessarily be slowed down with a legacy codebase. Another way to look at legacy vs. green field is that with a legacy system there's already a fairly complete spec, expressed in the code. Learning to read and understand code is a skill that programmers can learn if they care to.