This is tricky because you're also making a false comparison. Specifically, you're comparing between "you" and "older you." I would agree that in almost every c

This is tricky because you're also making a false comparison. Specifically, you're comparing between "you" and "older you." I would agree that in almost every conceivable case that "older you" is more competent and resourceful than younger you. The problem is that the comparison isn't necessarily between "you" and "older you"; instead it could be between "younger you" and some other set of programmers. There are a decent amount of good, young programmers and a really large amount of bad programmers. Also, generic "experience" is a false dichotomy. For example, if we were both given the problem "write a hardware accelerated virtual machine monitor kernel" I would probably run rings around you. Why? Because I have experience in that subdomain. If we were given a problem that focused more on your subdomain the situation would be reversed. Experience isn't black and white and there are some situations, like kernel development, where I'd probably be as good a choice as someone who never learned C but is a great Java developer. In other words, strictly age is a false comparison and making such naive comparisons is practically guaranteed to land you with someone unsuited for a specific problem.