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Comment by m0ck | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for my daily dose of software engineer imposter syndrome.

This is one where I’m fully comfortable with feeling like an impostor. I’ve gotten this far (~20 years) without more than a cursory glance at machine code, I’ll be pleased if I retire at the same level of relevant expertise.

Edit: don’t get me wrong! I admire the talent that goes into this and similar efforts, and find performance-chasing particularly inspiring in any context. This is just an area of that which I don’t anticipate ever wanting to tread myself.

The arrival of tools like Compiler Explorer means examining the assembly code is trivial. It's quite easy to fall down a rabbit hole of code tweaks to see what effect they have on codegen. Even examining the differences bwtween gcc and clang can be quite revealing.

Don't worry. It just seems like everyone else is so talented because no one writes articles about the 2 hrs they spent just trying to get their project to just build without errors. Or if they do, they don't get voted to the top of HN.

That stuff almost seems like toil these days

I don’t think this took 2 hours. 2 months maybe?

He mentions it took him months in the response.

I was very grateful to see this disclaimer:

> I've spent months working on this program

Also:

> I already have a master's thesis. This was harder.

If you want to get better at this specific thing, work or study in this field.

Person who wrote this probably won't know much about, say, compatibilities of latest version of WebPack and VueX; or about cryptographic protocols.

You cannot know everything.

> You cannot know everything.

........right?

right?

This is called "specialization" and it's the only reason we've gotten so far as a species. Not everyone can or should know this level in any subject.

just keep in mind, this person claims to have taken a few months to write this. I wouldn't worry about it. It's interesting never the less.

The last time I have seen this low level of code was in a college level course about assembly language.

As a comment on the linked post notes, this is impressive enough that it could probably be the basis of a degree thesis. An astonishing exhibit of technical skill, very much a masterpiece in the original sense of the term.

Imposter syndrome you say? I scrolled all the way to the bottom of page hoping to see a solution written in a language I actually understand and not pretend to understand.

It never goes away, does it

It's a feeling, a fear to be specific, so stems from a different part of the brain. No, I don't think fears go away completely. One learns to manage them.

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