[jrochkind1]

OP suggests there's a hump in the curve of experience vs over-engineering; more experience correlates to over-engineering until it gets to a certain point, at which even more experience leads to less over-engineering.

Is it true? I don't know, I think it matches my... experience.

Part of it is that the "experience" needed to avoid over-engineering is helped if it's not just engineering experience, but domain experience too. If someone is constantly jumping industries/domains, it might take longer to get there. I think they still would eventually.

[magicalhippo]

Often I'll tend to over-engineer the initial solution, but as I think about all the complex edge cases that needs to be handled etc I often find myself asking "does the customer really need all this".

After discussing it with the customer, a simpler solution often emerges, where they change the requirements slightly allowing for a much simpler solution that might even solve the actual needs better.

While it's not just down to experience, I'd say it has a strong influence on being able to see beyond the given requirements towards a better outcome.

[jaywalk]

My own personal learning curve matches that graph almost perfectly. I'm probably not as close to the right side as I'd like to think I am, but I'm always trying to move in that direction.