[mgkimsal]

10 years doesn't necessarily mean all that much. You might have only 3-4 years of experience, but if it's good experience, it'll beat the pants off 10 years of crap experience. Not saying anything about dshipper's situation, just in general length of time doing something doesn't necessarily make you that much better.

I say this as someone who's been working with software for 30 years, professionally for 17 years. I've gotten a lot better over the 17 years, thanks to many of the experiences and time I spent learning things. I've also been playing guitar for over 20 years, and am still pretty lousy at that. :)

[dshipper]

Agree completely - the length of time has nothing to do with the quality of your work. I have a friend who started coding a year ago and is in YC right now as the main technical founder. I'd say I've learned more about entrepreneurship and coding in the past year than I did over the past 4-5 combined.

[realitygrill]

How'd he manage that? It's quite impressive.

[dshipper]

Hard work and willingness to put himself out there.