How do you guage "experience"?

[daniel88]

Broad question (I apologize if it's been brought up recently):

How do you personally guage someone's or yourself's experience level with keeping or breeding reptiles?

Do you consider someone experienced when they have x amount of animals, x amount of years working with reptiles, the number of different species someone has/are working with, etc etc?

What experience level do you think you're at now and why? Do you feel experienced with a certain species instead of with lots of reptiles? If you're more novice/beginner/likewise what species would you like to work with/breed/own in the future and why?

I know there's so many factors but I'd like to hear input!

Nice reptiles collection. Did they never bite to you?

[Skiploder]

Good judgement comes from experience, often, experience comes from bad judgement.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Experience is recognising our mistakes once we have made them.

See the trend in the notable quotables? You gain experience by doing. You gain knowledge by reading.

I can read about a complicated surgical procedure, but that does not mean I have any experience doing it.

I can read about exploring the Marianas trench in a submarine, but that does not mean I have experience doing it.

Likewise you can read about how to sex a snake. You can read about how to administer injections to an animal. You can read about how to remove a stuck eyecap.

But that does not mean you have experience doing it.

Experience is not parroting or regurgitating what someone else knows or sharing what you have read. When you do that, all you are doing is sharing someone else's experience.

When someone asks a specific question about snake care, an experienced keeper relates what has worked for him/her successfully. An inexperienced keeper cribs the information from a care sheet or from what an experienced keeper has shared.

Can't make it any simpler than that. You've either done it, or you haven't. Being the first one to Google the correct answer or being the first one to offer up someone else's experiences is not a substitute for actual hands on expertise.

[jjmitchell]

Good judgement comes from experience, often, experience comes from bad judgement.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Experience is recognising our mistakes once we have made them.

See the trend in the notable quotables? You gain experience by doing. You gain knowledge by reading.

I can read about a complicated surgical procedure, but that does not mean I have any experience doing it.

I can read about exploring the Marianas trench in a submarine, but that does not mean I have experience doing it.

Likewise you can read about how to sex a snake. You can read about how to administer injections to an animal. You can read about how to remove a stuck eyecap.

But that does not mean you have experience doing it.

Experience is not parroting or regurgitating what someone else knows or sharing what you have read. When you do that, all you are doing is sharing someone else's experience.

When someone asks a specific question about snake care, an experienced keeper relates what has worked for him/her successfully. An inexperienced keeper cribs the information from a care sheet or from what an experienced keeper has shared.

Can't make it any simpler than that. You've either done it, or you haven't. Being the first one to Google the correct answer or being the first one to offer up someone else's experiences is not a substitute for actual hands on expertise.

What he said.......

[Egapal]

Broad question (I apologize if it's been brought up recently):

How do you personally guage someone's or yourself's experience level with keeping or breeding reptiles?

Do you consider someone experienced when they have x amount of animals, x amount of years working with reptiles, the number of different species someone has/are working with, etc etc?

What experience level do you think you're at now and why? Do you feel experienced with a certain species instead of with lots of reptiles? If you're more novice/beginner/likewise what species would you like to work with/breed/own in the future and why?

I know there's so many factors but I'd like to hear input!

This is like asking how do you tell if a painting is beautiful. There are many levels to experience. A person could memorize 100 books on all levels of husbandry but until you see it a few times its hard to notice the differences in the animals body language that indicate, they are hungry vs just being out of their hide. I still see my BP head out and think tonight she will eat only to have her recoil as soon as the rodent is presented. The following week I think ok what was I thinking last week. That's a hungry snake and sure enough I get a good feed. In 10 years I might be nearly perfect in reading my snake only to fail miserably when I get a new BP. Time and number of animals can help one person gain experience while another learns nothing. I have far more experience with horses and the one thing I have learned is that a person is only really good at judging whether another person has more, less or the same experience level as them.

[Daybreaker]

Wonderful input everyone! Very insightful

(I apologize for not coming in earlier to check through the thread, had internet problems)