Programming is a field that changes, and changes often. I have seen technologies, operating systems, languages and paradigms all come and go repeatedly.

This means as well that as soon as you have had a few years experience in a particular language or technology, something new takes over and you right back at square one again. People tend to think then that for example a fairly new programmer with 2 years experience in the latest language is just as good as the veteran programmer also with 2 years experience in that language. There I totally disagree.

The languages and paradigms might change often, but the underlying concepts of programming – things like problem solving, algorithms and that sort of thing – are staples and take years to develop skills at.

Programming is so much more than just being able to code in a particular language. And, in fact, the more experienced you are, the easier it becomes to learn new languages, based on what you know already.

There is a proviso which comes with this though. Experience by itself may be good enough in most fields, but in programming, that is not enough. With that experience, you also need to have adaptability.

Adaptability is your ability to change, so to be successful in the long run, you need both the experience and the adaptability to be able to keep up with the latest trends. I have seen too many people with a lot of experience but failed to keep up-to-date, and ended up in a dead-end.

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