Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

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Truly impressive work.

> Where do people get this knowledge?

Time, hands-on experimentation, and focus.

Anecdotally, reverse engineering and low-level hacking felt more popular back in the 90s and early 2000s. Back then, there were fewer distractions to soak up the free time of young tech enthusiasts. Old IRC chatrooms feel like a trickle of distraction relative to the firehose of Twitter, Reddit, 24/7 news cycles, and modern distractions.

A common complaint among the younger engineers I mentor is that they feel like they never have enough time. It's strange to watch a young, single person without kids and with a cushy 9-5 (or often 11am to 5pm at modern flex/remote companies) job complain about lack of free time. Digging deeper, it's usually because they're so tapped in to social media, news, video games, and other digital distractions that their free time evaporates before they even think about planning their days out.

It's amazing what one can accomplish by simply sitting down and focusing on a problem. You may not reach the levels of someone like Alyssa, but you'll get much farther than you might expect. And most importantly, you probably won't miss the media firehose.

There is a world of difference in free time between "having a 9-5 job" and "being in high school", though.

In high school, I was lucky enough to not have to do laundry, feed myself, or a variety of other tasks and chores that come along with adulthood. I also could sleep like crap and make it up during school the next day. Not to mention that the time I spent at school wasn't spent programming, so when I got home it wasn't more of the same, it was exciting. I could sit at the computer programing from 3pm to 2am.

>There is a world of difference in free time between "having a 9-5 job" and "being in high school", though.

Funny how this works. In high school I had a ton of free time. In college, not a lot of free time and very stressed. Entering the workforce, again a lot of free time and very stress free. I expect free time will disappear if children ever come into play

> I expect free time will disappear if children ever come into play

That would very much depend on how you choose to live.

As for me, living in Thailand and being a father of one daughter, I need to earn about 1.500 USD per month for our monthly needs. Which is easily achievable for me with less than a week of work. All extra money I earn above basic needs, I invest.

My current client sometimes has work for me 40 hours a week, sometimes only 40 hours a months. As such, I have plenty of time to dedicate to my own hobbies.

But this is only achievable because I left The Netherlands and decided to work remotely. And I do understand these kinds of choices are not possible for everyone (some people would find it very hard to live in another country, far away from family and friends, for example).

In our field and by making suitable choices it should be possible to have plenty of time for your own hobbies and projects.

I wouldn’t have a music career right now if I hadn’t relocated to Mexico in 2017

Wrote about it here https://link.medium.com/BAGPsTlChdb

I’d like to learn more about your journey... do you have a blog or anywhere you’ve written more about your experiences?

When I was in high school in 2004, I would fantasize about getting done with my work early and then catching the teacher on a good day where she let me get on the class computer so I could go to online forums and read more about programming. I sometimes wonder how far I would have been ahead had I had a smartphone in my pocket when I was in school like kids have today.

It doesn't surprise me that some kids capitalize on it instead of just using it to watch Twitch in class.

Yes, as a high school student who just fools around with their computer during online class (Linux, Gentoo, compiling and all that), it cannot be understated how many of my classmates play video games, watch YouTube, and watch Twitch. Those really are the big 3. I personally had to overcome a YouTube and video game addiction to get to a point where I was spending my free time in a mindful way, so I definitely can relate to everyone else.

YouTube hadn't really taken off until we were in middle school to early high school, so I couldn't imagine what internet addictions may be like in the future, seeing as quite a few toddlers of today grow up watching it. I suppose it's not too different to Television however.

Is doing laundry hard? I put it in the washing machine, turn that on to wash twice a week, put washed clothes on the line then take in when dry. I like to cook, have done since teens and before I can remember was tasked with food prep and washing dishes after a meal. Clean the house once per week engaging passion in various areas in this. And not viewing these as chores but simple things. For sixth-form and university, get to bed by 11, get to school by 8; not a super fan but appreciative of classes so sat in the school /uni library with books.

It isn't that it is hard, it's that it is a thing that has to be done, and so your brain cycles + interruptions are dedicated to these things.

Cooking is generally taken care of by parents, which means ancillary things like grocery shopping are too. You don't even have to dedicate brainwidth to "what groceries do we need to buy". There are so many tiny interruptions and bureaucratic overhead that keeps the brain slightly stressed as an adult that simply don't exist as a child, it is marvelous.

I think there's more to it tha n "if only you'd get off your butt and throw away that phone"

Knowing what to work on, what trends to be aware of, where to present your stuff is something that a modern elite collegiate is intimately familiar with.

Other teens and young adults, not so much. I myself having been one such and friends of other such.

For me, I have more than enough time, especially when working from home. It’s just that after work I feel like a brain dead zombie and programming is the last thing I want to do after work.

In the time before I started work and after finishing school I used to do so much open source stuff in the time that I now spend working.

That issue you describe, while intuitive and obvious to those of us who were around for the transition period is simple to arrive at. Keep in mind that youngsters nowadays may not have much if any experience with the before world or know someone reflective enough and willing to point it out to them. Many just assume we all mastered it somehow.

There is also the possibility, They might be right. Before, communication and the long access lag inherent in accessing data in remote systems meant change propagated by trickle. Now, change can happen and propagate across the world at breakneck speeds. Which means if one is to have an effect, one must be there/be aware.

This leaves precious little time for following the white rabbit. I think everybody could do with a little somber reflection on just the impact that rapid information propagation has had on the world.

Technology is moving faster nowadays.

I picked up JavaScript (or actually JScript) in 2001, when IE6 was this new hot thing. Back then you could cover most of the material on front-end in a week or two and not have to learn anything new for at least a year.

Fast forward 20 years later and browsers have major releases every few weeks while one of the most stable frameworks available - Angular - every six months.

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