To clarify: yes. I've seen veteran coders produces piles of C++ templates of templates and Java reflection and configuration nonsense that seemed to solve no pr

To clarify: yes. I've seen veteran coders produces piles of C++ templates of templates and Java reflection and configuration nonsense that seemed to solve no problem I've ever been aware of. I've seen technical leads write code where every single field in a class has a one-letter name. And I've seen clear, thoughtful code from people not too experienced (although never a total novice). But that's my whole point. Age discrimination isn't the only reason 'technical half-life is 3 years' is bogus (not [only] morally outrageous but wasteful of the discrimator's own dollars) -- but also because we should have actual standards. And not just any standards! Things like code cost and quality vs price. I feel like we've gone a bit through the looking glass because explicit knowledge of how to program well is maybe 15% of the actual craft. [Unrelated side note: I've heard of people using flash cards to try and learn programming. This is deeply weird to me! But I think it also reflects this 'half life of programming knowledge' way of thinking.]