3 ms·

There is something magical about the 10 years mark that compels people to write blog post showering us with their wisdom. I crossed that line several years back

There is something magical about the 10 years mark that compels people to write blog post showering us with their wisdom. I crossed that line several years back and my biggest realization is how little I knew back then. I believe it's worth remembering that years of experience is at best a weak predictor of competency. Careers are non linear and someone might growth the same in 10 or 20 years than others in 2 or 3. For the best deconstruction of career growth I've seen around (and one I personally identify a lot with) I recommend this blog post [1] from Carlos Arguelles. [1] https://medium.com/geekculture/career-growth-speed-deconstructed-a8005fec0a25 https://medium.com/geekculture/career-growth-speed-deconstru...

oh_sigh 4y ago
Sure, it is a time period that causes people to stop and reflect. I'd wager more people reflect on their lives at 10/15/20/25 years after hs/college graduation than their 11/16/21/26 years after
awb 4y ago
I’ve been coding for over 25 years and I’ve gone through peaks and plateaus. I even ran a successful dev agency 15 years ago, and my coding now is much better now than it was then.
- shrimp_emoji 4y ago
  Inspiring :)
- saurik 4y ago
  I have also been coding for like 25-30 years, and I definitely continue to get better. I also, though, do continue to get less overall productive... not because my mind is going, but because I am distracted by some new pain in my aging body or am spending more of my time being sad about things that aren't code (these past few years were just brutal).
Tade0 4y ago
> I crossed that line several years back and my biggest realization is how little I knew back then. Mine was that at this mark I already started forgetting stuff which I knew by heart as a junior dev.
lordnacho 4y ago
Yes and no, I think decreasing returns is a real thing. 10 years a long time, and you can explore whatever cave you started out in in that time. People regularly go from high school to PhD in an obscure specialty in 10 years. However 10 years is also enough time to explore the depth of one cave along with the openings of 5 other caves. That T-shaped skill set really gets wider in the next 10 years, at least it did for me. The width is also what tells you what you haven't looked at. For me it's Haskell and LISP. Not sure if I've got the monads to go down that route, it might overturn my existing long learned wisdom, something that could be painful with 20 years of experience.

oh_sigh 4y ago

Sure, it is a time period that causes people to stop and reflect. I'd wager more people reflect on their lives at 10/15/20/25 years after hs/college graduation than their 11/16/21/26 years after

awb 4y ago

I’ve been coding for over 25 years and I’ve gone through peaks and plateaus. I even ran a successful dev agency 15 years ago, and my coding now is much better now than it was then.

shrimp_emoji 4y ago
Inspiring :)
saurik 4y ago
I have also been coding for like 25-30 years, and I definitely continue to get better. I also, though, do continue to get less overall productive... not because my mind is going, but because I am distracted by some new pain in my aging body or am spending more of my time being sad about things that aren't code (these past few years were just brutal).

Tade0 4y ago

> I crossed that line several years back and my biggest realization is how little I knew back then. Mine was that at this mark I already started forgetting stuff which I knew by heart as a junior dev.

lordnacho 4y ago

Yes and no, I think decreasing returns is a real thing. 10 years a long time, and you can explore whatever cave you started out in in that time. People regularly go from high school to PhD in an obscure specialty in 10 years. However 10 years is also enough time to explore the depth of one cave along with the openings of 5 other caves. That T-shaped skill set really gets wider in the next 10 years, at least it did for me. The width is also what tells you what you haven't looked at. For me it's Haskell and LISP. Not sure if I've got the monads to go down that route, it might overturn my existing long learned wisdom, something that could be painful with 20 years of experience.