Speaking of experience.......sometimes I can run rings around so called knowledgeable lads fresh out of college, life experience does count for something after all. Best advice......just keep doing what you do best and let the other 'less knowledgeable' person(s) eat your dust.  

That is a trend that has become entrenched in modern society.  The young and inexperienced seem to think that their 'education' counts for everything and experience is "just old".  I recall a time [not so long ago] filling sand bags to help keep flood waters at bay, and this pair of whipper snappers going 'hell for leather' and thinking nothing of technique.  We did try to advise how to 'better' do it, but they ignored us and within a couple of hours both were buggered, puffing for breath and unable to carry on. The [other] old bloke and myself, however, just paced ourselves, had filled many, many more bags [we did over 80, they managed less than 40] in the same time and were still going. 

Yup, old dogs can teach young dogs old tricks... IF young dogs are willing to prick up their ears to listen, that is.

Hehe, it reminds me of the old bull and the young bull up on a hill surveying the herd of heiffers below.  The young bull says to the older one: "How about we run on down there and eff a few of them heiffers?"

The Old bull replies: "Why don't we just mosey on down there real casual-like and fech the lot?"

This is NOT a feel good post.  This is a solution post.

Dating as far back as even ancient Rome itself people faced harsh conditions and worked out systems to compensate for it.  Among the most historically famous were later known as guilds.  Today we call them modern mentoring apprenticeships.

A little known fact is many elite have their own apprenticeship programs for the same reasons you listed above.  The problem is you can't just pull one of the "clueless" middle fraction of the pyramid and apprentice them up top.  It just doesn't work well for the same reason conscripting men for service late in life often results in less than optimal soldiers.  All potential candidates have to be panned out from among the bottom "losers" fraction and sometimes head hunting.

■ An apprenticeship can be considerable investment but it pays for itself along the way with good stewardship.

■ Many have failed because the master while fully skilled at a trade confuse that with being fully skilled at teaching it.  Just because you have a black belt in karate does not automatically mean you have a black belt at instructing students!

■ Talent, mindset, and commitment are not enough.  The student needs to have a passion early on.

Whether your call in life was CEO of Stardock or Supreme Dark Lord of the Sith, eventually life's time catches up to you but your apprentice will carry this heavy cross and later be thankful for becoming stronger.

Hope this helps and remember the greater something is the greater it can go wrong.

So you're worried that everything will fall to shit once you retire? You're probably right. Time to go full McAfee   

It's ok, not to fret. We will one day be all obsolete. The more that computers and all of the algorythms and code replace jobs that used to involve human finesse and skill, not only will the product look a lot less unique and inspired, but we will work ourselves right out of jobs. But maybe our AI overlords will be kind to us.

FYI, I'm really not this paranoid. I'm just in one of those moods today.  

Froggie, I know where you're coming from (especially on the OS/2 shit).  I have a LOT more than 10,000 hours in development and constantly ran into people fresh out of college that 'knew' more than I ever learned the hard way.  Problem is that I've never been diplomatic in the face of ignorance.

My solution?  When the wife left I just blew it off and retired -- with the intention of keeping on writing code.  Did write a lot of code for a project that will never be commercial.  Now I read and write a lot of English (and a little code) and play a lot of GC.  And wish I could still create something that mattered.

Yah done good, boy.  Do some more before you retire, please, for us old farts.