In my experience, the needs of a production system often tend towards minimal changes to keep things running. I've known many people who eventually reach a point where they don't really program as much as they serve the system.

This can involve extreme knowledge of the various libraries and configurations needed by the production system, and a loss of basic programming ability. (In some cases, this can be so extreme that they can no longer write a standalone program.

This may very well be a function of my particular career experience.

I find that working outside production environments allows me to exercise a different set of programming muscles. This also allows me to try things that might fail where the risk is lower.

I find this kind of programming practice both a good exercise and a good way to learn new things. It also helps me re-examine basic assumptions once in a while to keep them from solidifying into personal dogma.

I have also used reinventing the wheel, on purpose as a kind of Kata to practice approaching problems from a new direction.

G. Wade

In reply to Re^4: Reinvent the wheel! by gwadej
in thread Reinvent the wheel! by telemachus

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