Otherwise known as lifelong learning, I love to experience the sort of rebirth of starting from scratch. I've been programming for 8 years at this point and have built complex high-level systems in the context of web applications, mainly based on product requirements at a job.
But most of the time, I still feel like I'm putting lego pieces together. I've had a yearning to start from scratch for a long time, even if that means being uncomfortable and banging my head against a wall until I become minimally competent.
In addition, the rise of AI as a dual-use technology is making it so we can build faster, but also build "dumber," with a general disconnect toward the tools that we need to be self-sufficient. I think that we should be using AI, but I also think that this challenges us to make ourselves better so we are not churning out mediocre slop code.
For years, I have been trying to learn systems programming. I've done previous dives into Go, Java, and now I'm on C. I can't say I've ever got the systems learning to "stick," but this time I feel closer than ever.
Starting with Beej's Guide and now building alongside a tutorial for making my own text editor (replacing variable names and some syntax choices for readability), I am really excited about where this journey will take me.
So what is the goal of all of this? At the end of the day, it's going to make me a better programmer. Learning DSA from the ground up is also going to make me a better programmer (highly recommend The Primagen's Course for this one). I don't have a computer science background, and I'm not going to pretend I know everything because I have been building things on a practical basis for so long.
It's good to be a beginner. The world is open again.
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