The Experience of a Lifetime

Over the course of my career as a software developer, I have had many different roles and responsibilities. I have had the opportunity to build new software, replace legacy systems, and many other unique projects. Similarly, the department for which I work has had many different employees filling many different roles. I am currently a member of the one-man team know as the maintenance team. In a nutshell, my job is to field all of the bug reports from each of our various systems and fix them. It's a much different paradigm than writing new code. I've heard it described as being the detective in a crime movie where you're also the murderer.

I recently found myself working on a maintenance task to replace some old technology that is being phased out. As part of that effort, I was required to make some fairly extensive changes to one of our applications. More than would normally be required when fixing bugs. It's our standard practice to have your changes reviewed by a co-worker before you complete them, but these changes were fairly involved, so I felt it would be wise to call a meeting and discuss the changes with the full team.

For the most part, the team signed off on the changes, but one of our veteran developers asked a follow-up question about one of the changes. In the course of that discussion, we uncovered what could have been a major issue had the change been accepted as I had originally planned. It wasn't so much that my change was wrong, but rather that I had overlooked a key component of our system. 

With the issue discovered, we were able to make a minor adjustment that ended up putting us in a much better place. I was able to learn from the experience of someone who had lived and learned and made the same mistakes I was about to make. By drawing on his experience I not only avoided a costly mistake, we ended up with a better all-around solution.

We need experience and reason to balance out innovation and progress. We need young minds who see the world in a different way to come up with new solutions to new problems, but we also need the wisdom and guidance of those who have been on the front lines and lived through the outcomes of their decisions.

Shifting from programming to politics, we see a very similar situation emerging. Our youth are becoming more involved and active in the political arena, which is a great thing, but we still need veteran leadership to guide and direct that enthusiasm. 

Examine with me, if you will, one issue I've been tracking a bit. There is some momentum behind a movement to lower the voting age in the United States from 18 to 16. There are those who feel like this would be a catalyst to get youth involved and help make their voices heard. I, for one, am opposed to this. I realize that children are the future, but those of us with more years under our belts have been to the future. I don't mean we've time traveled, but what we have done is made a decision in the past and then observed the consequences of that decision five, ten, fifteen years into the future.

Doing this has allowed us the opportunity to fairly evaluate whether or not the right decision was made. A 16-year-old kid is not equipped to make a decision that will have a long-lasting impact. Not because they aren't intelligent, but because they don't have enough experience. When was the last time you heard a high school student analyzing and reflecting on choices they made when they were in 3rd grade?

The point is experience matters. Youth and ambition are well and good, but veteran leadership is critical to keep things moving in the right direction. And nowhere is this more evident than in the leadership of the Church. When President Monson passed away at age 90, a different organization may have felt it was time for a youth movement. Time to get younger and more current. The Church? They replaced President Monson with President Nelson, who is 93. And in his first General Conference as Prophet, he made a historic announcement that eliminated the High Priest group from the Wards and Branches of the church and combined the Melchizedek Priesthood into a single Elders Quorum. 

In doing so he did not remove the office of High Priest but rather asked that High Priests in the Ward join with the Elders Quorum to strengthen their ranks. The Elders can now benefit from the experience and wisdom of men who have seen more, lived more, and experienced more. The High Priests can also benefit from the energy, ambition, and perspective of the rising generation. A rising tide raises all ships and the time has come for us as priesthood holders to raise our game.

At one point something will happen to each one of us that we will later describe as the experience of a lifetime, but along the way don't forget to learn from those with a lifetime of experience.