I'm sorry if I made it sound like I was born perfect. That wasn't what I was trying to convey. Yes, we learn by making mistakes, and I've sure made at least my fair share of them. My point is that horking out algorithms on demand is definitely not the same thing as being a competent software engineer, nor is it particularly predictive of the likelihood of developing those skills. Also, I measure my success by the people I've helped and the impact I have on the business. For instance, figuring out how to eliminate 500,000+ lines of code from a codebase strikes me as way more valuable than hopping about at a whiteboard like a trained monkey. Ask better questions, get more impactful employees.