Category: experience

Professionalism = Knowledge First, Experience Last

July 22, 2008 by JurgenAppelo

Do you trust a doctor with diagnosing your mental problems if the doctor tells you he's got 20 years of experience? Do you still trust that doctor when he picks up a knife and ice picks, and asks you to prepare for a lobotomy?

Note: A lobotomy, or leukotomy, which involves the cutting of connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, was used on many thousands of patients all over the world in the 20th century. These days it is seen as "one of the most barbaric mistakes ever perpetrated by mainstream medicine".

Would you still be impressed if the doctor had 20 years of experience in carrying out lobotomies?

I am always skeptic when people tell me they have X years of experience in a certain field or discipline, like "5 years of experience as a .NET developer", "8 years of experience as a project manager" or "12 years of experience as a development manager". It is as if people's professional levels need to be measured in years of practice.

This, of course, is nonsense.