HN is quite helpful on similar thoughts expressed in the past and I have read some of them. But my question is somewhat different. Suppose you have a decade. Is it possible to use that time to "train yourself" to be an increasingly better programmer?
Or is it more like no matter what happens, your "scale as a programmer" is constant?
Philip Ross argued (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-expert-mind) that getting better at chess is possible with "correct" training. Thus, 10 years spent without correct training and the same time spent with correct training can make a vast difference.
Would that apply to programming?