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I suspect that only young people can be that ruthlessly data-driven. Us older people tend to have experience that we're attached to, and a certain psychological resistance to the idea that the stuff we've been doing for most of our career was actually a waste of time.

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I would say it depends on the person. I personally assume that how I did things in the past is no longer the state of the art and I always look towards younger engineers or outside resources to figure out the new best way, informing my decision based on mistakes of the past.

And if the data says I'm wrong, I trust it. I have no belief that I've already found the best solution.

I don’t see how you can be a technologist in the long run without this attitude. Maybe this is the no true Scotsman fallacy, but one of the key aspects of technology is it will change right underneath you often. (Except SQL injection, apparently, the team keeps finding it at an alarming rate in modern apps).

It really depends on the person. I am in my late 30s and experience has taught me that there is a good chance the way I am working today will be obsolete tomorrow. As a manager I embrace this and encourage the people in my team to bring new ways of thinking and working. The kind of culture this creates encourages constant experimentation which ultimately leads to better results.

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