Obviously experience will vary from person to person. But your point is well made. The quality of the code depends a lot on the quality of the programmer. Bett

Obviously experience will vary from person to person. But your point is well made. The quality of the code depends a lot on the quality of the programmer. Better programmers write better code. Of course very few of us are great programmers on day 1. we learn and get better. I'm spending a reasonable amount of my time now re-writing code I built 25 years ago. Equally, we grow better, and learn faster, when we get feedback. All too often the lone programmer is not reading code written by others, and is not getting feedback on his own code. So growth is slowed, or in some cases stopped for decades. Bad habits from 20 years ago still exist because there's no-one to rail against them. So yes, lone programmers can be great, especially if they are outstanding to begin with. But the vast majority are mediocre and need the assistance of peers, and seniors to grow. On the other hand those that grow up under seniors with bad habits, who _enforce_ those habits, are screwed.