"Is Experience Really Useful?"

Recently, I found that I spend more time thinking rather than doing things. Then I reviewed the books and materials I have read lately and discovered that a lot of them discuss why we should do things rather than how to do them.

We easily fall into a state of doing things because it is simpler, requiring no rethinking, and we can draw on past experiences, which often brings us joy during the process. Even though I have worked in technology for many years, I still struggle with new requirements because there is no experience to refer to.

So, which is more important: having experience or not?

In my work experience, I have collaborated with many people, including those with rich experience and some inexperienced young individuals. I found that most experienced individuals excel in their fields, but when faced with new challenges, they often fall short. Conversely, sometimes inexperienced young people, with just a bit of guidance, can perform exceptionally well.

In the field of technology development, every piece of code written can potentially have issues, which we call bugs. For those who do not understand technology, it seems incomprehensible why code would have bugs; shouldn't it work perfectly if written correctly? Code is merely a representation of logic, but in complex systems, all logic is interdependent. You may only be responsible for a specific implementation, but once integrated into the larger system, unforeseen issues can arise.

For example, everyone receives notifications on their phones, right? This feature seems quite common. When we developed this feature, we often received complaints about not receiving notifications. We checked and found no issues; it worked fine for us. Later, we discovered that when sending requests to Apple's servers, there was a certain probability of failure, commonly referred to as "network jitter." Although this happens daily with a certain probability, at the scale of over a hundred million requests a day, this probability becomes a significant problem.

Typically, if we relied on past experiences, the conclusion would likely be, "Is there a problem with your phone?" or "Is there an issue with Apple's servers?" This problem could easily be overlooked. However, if we asked someone inexperienced, their first reaction would be to consider whether it might be their fault, as they have no prior successful experiences to reference, which could actually help drive the resolution.

Another example: I have recently been reading Wang Yangming's philosophy of the mind. Wang Yangming was like a cult leader, spreading his philosophy everywhere, while many in the court mocked him, claiming his ideas were nonsense and merely deceiving people. However, a man named Wang Qiong had great faith in Wang Yangming. During a discussion about appointing someone to deal with bandits, Wang Qiong recommended Wang Yangming. Other ministers argued that this guy had no experience at all, suggesting it was a reckless decision. Ultimately, under Wang Qiong's strong recommendation, Wang Yangming was appointed to deal with the bandits.

As a result, a security issue that had remained unresolved for years was handled by Wang Yangming in just a few months. How did he do it? His predecessors all took a straightforward approach: just act! The result was similar to how street management officers would scare off people; as soon as they left, everyone returned. Moreover, due to years of banditry, the local government was impoverished, and the capable soldiers had joined the bandits, leaving only weak and sickly soldiers in the government ranks, who were completely ineffective in battle.

Wang Yangming believed that most people would blindly trust their experiences, and he judged that the bandits did the same. He then sent only a small group to fight, which initially suffered defeat. He believed that based on past experiences, the government troops would retreat after a loss, and indeed, Wang Yangming's troops withdrew. That night, the bandits began celebrating their victory, but Wang Yangming dispatched elite government troops to directly attack the bandits' stronghold, catching them off guard while they were celebrating.

In conclusion,

Does this mean that experience is useless? Not at all. Experience is merely a basis for making judgments. However, if you blindly trust experience and fail to assess the current situation, then experience can become a stumbling block. At that point, you may stop thinking and gathering more information for decision-making, which could lead to a wrong decision.