[tonecluster]

Good point.

I've been programming since the age of 9, and I'm well into my 40s.

What that statement doesn't say is that for some of those years I learned very little (even though I was spending some of that time coding, I wasn't really "doing" anything; I.e., wasn't learning).

What really matters is doing quality work, making quality mistakes (so to speak), and learning from that and from other good engineers around you.