Years of Experience Myth

Comments debate the quality versus quantity of professional experience in software development, repeatedly citing the adage that some have '10 years of experience' while others have '1 year repeated 10 times,' emphasizing depth over mere tenure.

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3,774
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#6021
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
5
2008
27
2009
49
2010
81
2011
106
2012
143
2013
188
2014
204
2015
177
2016
259
2017
279
2018
251
2019
271
2020
283
2021
307
2022
375
2023
281
2024
238
2025
240
2026
10

Keywords

MB PM HN experience years experience 10 years experience experienced 10 times 10 10 years year times 20

Sample Comments

davvolun Dec 13, 2017 View on HN

A decade's worth of experience vs beginner-level experience could explain the issue. Not saying it does, just that it could.

allworknoplay Oct 2, 2015 View on HN

You forgot "N years of experience in something that's only existed for N - 2 years"

Workaccount2 Jul 28, 2023 View on HN

The good old "They don't have 10 years experience, they have 2 years of experience 5 times"

beat Mar 18, 2019 View on HN

Hopefully. A friend of mine once said "So do you have ten years of experience, or do you have one year of experience ten times?"

bigiain Nov 22, 2018 View on HN

"Some people have 10 years experience. Some people have had 1 years experience 10 times over..."

warrenm Mar 20, 2023 View on HN

As the old adage says, "Do you have 10 years of experience? Or 1 year of experience, 10 times?"

Haydos585x2 Apr 23, 2020 View on HN

The best thing I've seen on the topic is: "Some people have 10 years experience, some people have 1 years experience 10 times".

ionforce Apr 29, 2015 View on HN

You're conflating age with level of experience.

zepolen Feb 10, 2022 View on HN

There are seniors with 5 years of proper experience that will run circles around the seniors that have 15 years doing the same 1 year of experience.

pkolaczk Mar 24, 2014 View on HN

"They have the same experience with whatever the latest thing is."This assumption is wrong. They don't have the same experience. Their direct experience (counted as the time they spent hacking with the latest thing) might be exactly the same, but this doesn't translate to the same effective experience / capability. When I was 20, it took me much longer to become productive with any new thing than it is now when I'm 30. A 20-year old with a 6-month experience with