[god_bless_texas]

I would agree that if you don't intend to utterly disrupt some industry, that some experience working in another company can be helpful.

I would argue that as much good knowledge may be gained that the equal number of bad habits may be learned and turn you into an "inside the box thinker".

Working in a hardware startup is a great example of this duality, however. Old engineers know that planning, testing, and quality debugging lead to a great product and that no amount of research can beat a good test program. Young engineers are willing to try stuff because they don't know what they don't know. Some huge innovations have come from younguns trying stuff that "shouldn't" work, and become industry shaping product innovations.

Who's right in the end? Both have been.

Last, I think I am pretty sick of people saying "what the formula is". Just shut up, because there isn't one!