Natural Selection Seems Insufficient

[Jal]

Let's consider your C# example. Suppose a C# developer said that he was hardcoding all his settings directly in the code instead of a configuration file.  You could reasonably offer some advice here, I think?  Or suppose that, instead of writing a static method called from 50 different places, he duplicated the method 50 times.  Might you possibly have some helpful suggestions here?  (I'm not saying you're suggestions would be authoritative, but they would be worth listening to). 

I've seen briliiant, doctorate-level coders write code like this:
    var result = processThisID(strID)
I don't have to be a C# expert to tell them it's more clear to write it like this:
   Customer c = processThisID(strCustomerID)
Yes, a newbie can sometimes give excellent correction to an expert.

You have to consider the CONTENT of what the newbie is saying, not simply disregard him for his lack of credentials.

You'e comparing apples to oranges, coding strategies (apples) to coding a specific coding language (oranges). I could, perhaps, recommend a strategy, if i knew enough about C# to know if that strategy is possible. Since I don't, I'm not going to offer advice on the subject because I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH UNDERLYING UNDERSTANDING! Much like you in the sciences.

Ok you would remain silent. I would not. I would speak up, if I felt I had good reason to do so (in fact I HAVE spoken  up on the "Customer" code above),and I would expect those who  ARE experts in C# to enumerate the flaws, if any, in my position, especially on a debate/discussion forum.  If they repeatedly show themselves UNABLE to identify any flaws in my reasoning, I will cling to my (tentative) opinions for now. So it looks like I'll be taking those (tenatative) opinions to my grave, because I've yet to see anyone rebut them.