I was doing a little programming, and kept hitting a road block. Just like I always do, I had written documentation down on why you would hit similar road blocks some weeks earlier.

However my present self was in no mood to refer to be book long and revisit my literature. Neither was I interested in listening to advice. I was coding gung ho.

Thus, I continued hitting the road block. A little coding exercise that should have taken me 10 minutes was turning into an hour.

Freaks!

Eventually, the solution to this debacle manifested itself. I discover (to my own scorn, and relief), that my past self had indeed noted down the exact solution for me.

Damn!

Experience always trumps ignorance.  Maybe I was wrong to continue my all-out attack style. Maybe I should have been more cautious.  After all, progress has been built upon not re-doing the wheel. The wheel has already been perfectly done. The mistakes have been learnt. And the corrective actions taken.

Experience has tasted the good, the bad and the ugly. If your older self says do A, it knows why he wants you to do A. Trying to do B would only bring you a world of pain you do not want to know about. Experience would not give an alternative that would wish you evil. Actually if you do want to retrogress, do not listen to advice.

Experience knows best. It pays to listen to experience.

Remember this the next time you try to rubbish others who have been in an industry, profession, your parents or anyone else with significantly more knowledge than you. You are the new kind on the block. And you are still learning.

Cheers.