kondov

I'm doing my best to mimic enthusiasm, but it's becoming harder and harder to do so. I was afraid I was turning into a dinosaur, so I tried to be excited about AI. We can do more with computers, we can build faster, we can prototype, etc. But when you have automation you get people with spreadsheets running the business and this is a little bit too close to an assembly line for my liking.

I guess I'll be in the industry until it eventually spits me out, but if the rippling effects of software being devaluated can be so big that I don't know what I'll even do once this chapter of my life is over.

There's truth to this. I find that most of my non-llm work is happening in the "seams" between apps and services - data ownership, security, infra, etc. Things that are happening outside the IDE.

I feel the exact same way and my career path and years in the industry are pretty much the same as well. What's usually blocking me from giving other programming niches a try is that I can't imagine ever building something in them that people actually use. Everything I've studied so far has been grounded in practicality and building a compiler, for example, seemed like something that only a select few can build with good quality.

Anyway, I got the "Writing An Interpreter In Go" book and I think I'll give it a shot either way. I think I'm at a point in my career where I'm finally tired of building the same things again and again. I've also been thinking about doing a design course in Interaction Design Foundation just to get my mind interested in things again and detach myself from the work I've been doing.

I'm working on my own card game. Been playing games like Magic for 15 years now and thought I'd soaked up enough game design passively to make something of my own. Want to make a single-player game similar to the Witcher's Thronebreaker.

I know next to nothing about game development and that makes it even more exciting.

I don't think that there's a universal truth about what you should be making or doing. It's up to each person to decide that for themselves. Philosophy exposes you to different ideas and ways of thinking, showing that there isn't a single correct answer to the questions people have in life. What you make of that is up to the person on the receiving end of those ideas.

1. I write about the more philosophical aspects of software engineering. As the years passed I got more interested in the "why". Why do we use certain techniques. Why do we build software the way we do. I started researching my questions and writing essays based on what I've found mixed with some of my own thoughts.

2. I post twice a month.

3. It's hosted on Netlify and built with Gatsby. All of my articles are just markdown files.

4. https://alexkondov.com/

I've been struggling with the same problem for quite some time now, so I thought I'd share how I've been coping with it. The most important thing is to realize that becoming the best in something should not be the motivation pushing you in this industry. In competitive games like Dota, there is a clear winner and loser when the match is over. The real competition in programming, however, is being better than you were before, expanding your mindset and solving more complex problems.

There will always be someone better, smarter or a faster learner but that doesn't diminish the progress you've already made. There are people who have talents for certain things, there are people who learn certain things faster. I've found that competing with myself is the only healthy way to move forward or I would always feel that I'm not good enough compared to others.

As it was already mentioned in the comments, there is nothing wrong in pushing yourself when you want to improve, but don't take it to the extreme. We operate on work/rest cycles and as you need discipline in work you also need discipline in rest. I try to look at the process of improvement like a marathon rather than a sprint. The journey is going to be a long one, so don't lose the joy of it by pushing too hard. Think about how long you can go like this and consider if this would take the fun of programming away. Think of unproductive activities as a way to get your mind some rest, much like sleep.