I'd probably take 10x 1y experience. Where I'm at now, everyone has been with the company 10-40 years. They think the way they do things is the only way because they've never seen anything else. I have many stories similar to the parent. They are a decade behind in their monitoring tooling, if it even exists at all. It's so frustrating when you know there are better ways.

"10x1y" means someone did the same thing for 10 years with no change or personal development. The learning stopped after the first year which then repeated Groundhog Day style.

Ah, I misunderstood.

another term for the phenomena is the "expert beginner" trap.

I see a dual. Between 10x1 workers and 1x10 workers working at 10x1 companies.

Either way, doing the same kinds of things, the same kind of ways, more than a few times, is an automation/tool/practice improvement opportunity lost.

I have yet to complete a single project I couldn't do much better, differently, if I were to do something similar again. Not everything is high creative, but software is such a complex balancing act/value terrain. Every project should deliver some new wisdom, however modest.

I have heard it as 20 versus 1, but it is the same thing.

also called by some other names, including NIH syndrome, protecting your turf, we do it this way around here, our culture, etc.