This is a bit late but this should be noted :<p>&quot;Bill Gates: No. I think after the first three or four years, it&#x27;s pretty cast in concrete whether you&#x27;re a good programmer or not. After a few more years, you may know more about managing large projects and personalities, but after three or four years, it&#x27;s clear what you&#x27;re going to be. There&#x27;s no one at Microsoft who was just kind of mediocre for a couple of years, and then just out of the blue started optimizing everything in sight. I can talk to somebody about a program that he&#x27;s written and know right away whether he&#x27;s really a good programmer.&quot;<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.codinghorror.com&#x2F;how-to-become-a-better-programmer-by-not-programming&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.codinghorror.com&#x2F;how-to-become-a-better-programm...</a><p>So Does Bill still believe this or is he a hypocrite in hiding ?