There's a quote, usually attributed to Einstein: "the only difference between genius and stupidity is that stupidity has no bounds." As you said, you've put lim

There's a quote, usually attributed to Einstein: "the only difference between genius and stupidity is that stupidity has no bounds." As you said, you've put limits on yourself to keep yourself from being stupid. Remove your limits and you'll be as productive (if not more productive) than any 20-something, though you'll probably do stupid things from time-to-time. Don't be afraid of being stupid, after all, it has no bounds... :p In all seriousness though, just spend an afternoon coding something you wouldn't normally code without thinking about it first. As you get older, it's harder to just cowboy code something without stopping to think about it. With some practice, you can bang out some pretty high quality code very quickly. And then you'll eventually learn when to cowboy it and when to think. My 2¢. YMMV.