100-1 might be an exaggeration, but the knowledge of different tools, methods, and patterns and how to apply them gives the experienced programmer the ability t

100-1 might be an exaggeration, but the knowledge of different tools, methods, and patterns and how to apply them gives the experienced programmer the ability to produce code that does more, more quickly, and with fewer side effects than the inexperienced programmer. There is also a matter of natural talent: The best software engineers can design software that the average programmer would not be able to develop to the same quality if given years to work on it. To give an anecdote, the place where I most recently worked had two developers who had been there since the beginning, a software engineer and another coder. The engineer on a bad day could quadruple the output of myself and the other guy in terms of both the number of changes and their value to the project.