I followed tutorials for Vulkan. I liked vk-guide, until it updated to the latest version. People said the newer SDL is so much better, but I honestly had more fun and got things done back with Renderpasses.

I personally have just been building off of tutorials. But notwithstanding all of the boilerplate code, the enjoyability of a code base can be vastly different.

The most fun I’ve ever had coding, and still do at times, is with WebGL. I just based it off of the Mozilla tutorial and went from there. WebGLFundamentals has good articles…but to be honest I do not love their code

I like the Bible too. It is unfortunate but not unexpected that it set off such a firestorm in the replies.

I would even go so far to say that even nonbelievers would find much value in it, just reading at least the top stories and passages the Old and New Testaments. These are foundational cultural texts that bridge centuries of peoples. And if you are a nonbeliever who wants to read beyond the popular well known parts, please do! But read with a mind to connect with others, not divide.

There are other good things to read too. Plato, Shakespeare, the Chinese Classics, Greek Mythology, folktales. Things that people share with those around them as well as their ancestors

I live comfortably in the United States. I consider myself middle class. I worry about my job and increasing costs. But I’m okay.

I do feel like that we really could end global poverty if we tried, and that people like me ought to contribute.

Everyone worries about losing their job I think. Nowadays employment is a lot more unstable. Hell a large percentage of the workforce doesn't even have permanent employment. Flexibility is great for companies but humans need stability.

There is nothing worse than the economy going South, corporations starting to cut jobs en masse and you finding out that there are 50 other people who show up for that job interview.

Not all poverty is created equal.

Some people had good financial discipline and still fell into poverty due to business catastrophes, accidents or health problems. We need better systems to provide shields for those people, be it bankruptcy laws, universal insurance or healthcare.

Others live in unhabitable environments that can never sustain a viable economy. Until humanity finds technologies to address those environmental issues, they can never get out of poverty.

Then there are always people who are reckless and irresponsible. They are black holes of resources. Some can be educated while others do deserve to be poor. It's based their own decisions and I don't see a moral issue to leave them alone.

I’d say 99% of the poor are in the first two categories. So I don’t really care if the third category gets some stuff too if it means we help everyone else.

I sure see a lot of people in category 3

Oh really? Where? How can you tell they're reckless or lazy and not (e.g.) disabled?

It's pretty easy to see when someone spends money like an idiot

The spectre of the "wasteful welfare recipient" is invoked constantly, but I've never seen any of these people. The poor people I've known are, by necessity, quite careful with money.

Agreed. I was nodding along with the GP right up until their ending statement, yikes.

Poverty is usually (always?) result of politics. I.e. in poor countries you have a highly dysfunctional system and elites which profiting off it. So the only way to to help is to instigate some kind of coup, eliminate warlords etc. But then how do you guarantee that whoever replaces them would be better?

Our own countries could stop actively funding, supporting and even creating that corrupt elite, for a start. See e.g. the Françafrique system in Africa.

I used to see pigeons everywhere as a kid. Now they are very rare. I like these animals and many others, and I wish TFA went more into what can be done.

I'm always happy to see pigeons around. They are a lot rarer these days. I remember, before West Nile came around, they would blanket an area. People would have to wash their cars every other day because they would poop on the roofs. Especially if you parked under a tree.

It was the same with crows and sparrows too. Now, you're a lot less likely to see cool birds in urban areas.

Around the mich med main campus/huron river, in the winter, there will be a couple of days here and there that thousands and thousands of crows decide to blanket the campus with poop and caw at you as you try to navigate it with your feet. Good idea to have a hood up or hat on.

Even when I was still in school and looking for internships I could feel this. In CS we learned more about compilers and operating systems, but companies wanted web developers, so IT and IS had a big edge. I did game programming on my own time, so companies would recommend interning with a game company. It was frustrating.

I’ve been working in web development for many years now. It’s okay. I still don’t know what I want to be in the future. I still don’t feel like a “real dev”. But still do some side learning. I’m happy it worked for the writer, and I hope it does for you too.

I should add that you are a real dev. There's all kinds of programming out there. That's why I enjoy DSA and maths; it's the stuff that transcends languages and has applications in almost every domain. You benefit from knowing how to implement a queue or balance a tree whether you're writing databases, making games, or building distributed systems.

Anyone can learn this stuff. Ignore the gate keepers and the little voice that tells you only smart people can do this. You're a smart person. Crack a book, open a new file, compile some code. You'll get there.

I wrote my first queue this week, and started learning DSA this week as well. I use to ignore those topics, but I think the path I seek would benefit from that knowledge.

Thanks. web dev or game dev are still developers. I don't subscribe to the "real developer" mindset, except if they're vibe coders :)

I ask everyone to never stop creating, never stop sharing. And when your friend shares, appreciate it, for what it is, that it is theirs, that they did it, and that it is them.

Draw, play an instrument, paint, write a poem, sing, cook, shoot hoops, talk about books over coffee. Be personal.

I do often feel like a Lost Programmer.

C# is my Blub. I use Visual Studio (and not Visual Studio Code). I also use some T-SQL and JavaScript, and sometimes C++ on the weekends. In all of these, my understanding is still rather shallow. And for my day job, and most of my hobbies, it works.

But there is a definite next level I haven’t pierced, the level of “real programmers”. I want to understand the code I see on GitHub, even contribute. I want to be capable of more. But it is hard when I can’t even tell what I’m seeing, when I’m just trying to Make It.

Keep the curiousity up and learn your Fundamentals - things that do not change that often and on which most of our tools and frameworks are built. Dive deep into OSes, networks - build your own TCP and/or HTTP server, assembly and the machine code - how the CPU and memory works? As well as some algos and data structures for sure. These few things cover most of it ;)

For me, my real day starts after work is over. That is when the meaningful part happens. And if I am going to accomplish much that night, I need to arrive home knowing exactly what I need to start with, and do it. This is similar to Paul Graham’s saying that the people who get things done wake up knowing the one thing they need to do. Trouble with my evenings, though, is that my commute home and usage of the restroom have a way of draining all of my motivation and energy.

Jesus, what goes on in that restroom?

I think a bigger problem is that, with urban sprawl, it makes it hard to service enough people with public transportation.

I really appreciate your last point. An AI that can improve one’s social skills, má good matches, facilitate human connection and relationships, could be great