What if? While I’d love to really know how computers work at this level of depth, I can’t help but feel like it’s a colossal waste of time these days if you already have other sharply tuned high level programming skills.

The ROI isn’t great, the time you spend learning this is time you could have spent going deeper into your chosen craft and becoming even more masterful.

By the time you do learn a dangerous level of assembly and reverse engineering knowledge, you’ll still have to fight for entry level gigs to get in the industry unless you’re really good at finding niche and high paying work... meanwhile people still want to pay you six figures+ for your decade or more of experience writing everyday software at scale.

Alas, where as it once seemed like anything was possible, as I get older I come to realize the best use of my time is to further perfect the things I already know how to do well, so that one day I can truly become a sagacious master, or at the very least not fall behind my peers and become “outdated”.

Learning opportunities like this are inspiring, but ultimately just a passing curiosity. I hope someone young finds it well.