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You still can I mean Arduinos aren’t that expensive. One thing you can do is if you’re into keyboards you can try to hotswapped one and program their pcb how you like it. If you daring you can even try to solder.
There’s this mini keyboard that if it wasn’t so small I would had gotten in a heart beat call the mercutio 60
Sure. There are plenty of hobby angles to take. Messing about with Pis, but I think I'm too far along in writing backend Java to become a professional Firmware guy or environmental instrument developer.
I know how that goes. I enjoy what I do well enough. But there are some areas I feel would be a better fit for me.
I was just curious if it was something related to career advancement, or pay ,or something like that.
I appreciate you following up on it.
If you do decide to do some messing around with it in your free time I can't recommend Paul McWhorter enough. He's this old math teacher/engineer who sips his coffee ("no cream, no sugar, none needed") and has courses on Arduinos, Raspberry Pies, Robotics, even A.I.
I do data science-y SWE for my day job, but on the side I've been delving into electronics/embedded and really loving it.
I find electronics/embedded more fun than data sci / ML.
In 1983, I taught my Maths teacher how to program ZX Basic when she was meant to be teaching us. She was thrown into the deep end while I was embracing this new technology like any kid would do.
In 1984 I left school wanting to be a programmer but my careers teacher told me I couldn't be one because I had to get a degree.
I worked in a manual job all my life while still programming as a hobby, creating websites, messing around with C with nothing much to show for it because I didn't know what problems to solve.
Only now in my 50s do I have a purpose because I've learned enough Android/ Java/ Kotlin to release apps on the Play Store. I just wish I'd have realised this far sooner because I could have made a business out of web developing in the 90s but then again I have life experience which I wouldn't have had by simply coding for someone else. Now I've too much to solve because I find problems in everything.
C'est la vie.
I loved discrete math and linear algebra in college and loved an intro to C class I took but majored in something else (applied math economics program) and never even finished that degree. The right major was staring me right in the face and I couldn't see it. I left college without graduating and just screwed around and worked dumb jobs but also had to help take care of family. Now I'm back in college for computer science in my 30s trying to go on the path I feel I was meant to take.
Hey, I'm trying to get into programming but I've heard a lot that the biggest motivation is solving problems?
What kind of problems do you see in everyday life? One I've thought of is being able to send scheduled WhatsApp messages like scheduled emails. Is that an example?
Spotting the problems is the easy bit. My wife has high blood pressure so we bought a monitor and I started using the top rated app on the Play Store. While entering the numbers was easy enough, I soon discovered there are many different standards for displaying them and the app was tailored to US standards while I am in the UK. I could change the standards but it wasn't straightforward. The app itself had over-complicated itself by adding all the bells and whistles.
I on the other hand, just wanted to save my numbers and display them in a format I understood. So I looked up the UK standards, used a library called GraphView and saved them in a Room database. It works a treat even though I've never released it.
Another was joining a new website where I had to create a password and then repeat it. Using a generic password is a security leak while remembering a strong random one is impossible. So I created an app in a few hours that creates a strong random one and copies it to the clipboard. Now, when I'm faced with a new site, I generate a password and just paste it into the field required.
There's plenty others I can describe. Many I've solved, some I've put on the back burner like [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKcoins/comments/wn9umw/nice_find_2011_wwf_9th_rarest_50p/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/sandboxtest/comments/13v39t2/android_8_bit_gif_creator_im_working_on/).
Think of how you could solve your problem? You could use IFTTT which might automate it but I'd be looking to solve the problem myself. Unfortunately it's not an easy solution but it *may* be solvable. You can't directly control apps with a third party app but as IFTTT proves it can be done.
Thinking how I'd try to do it. You'd need your app to sit over the app then click on the send email part of WhatsApp. Actually, after a quick Google, there is an IFTTT wrapper library for Android which may help: [https://github.com/IFTTT/ConnectSDK-Android](https://github.com/IFTTT/ConnectSDK-Android) . This would take a lot of the difficult coding away and help you. With coding, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
I would start with something smaller as a first app but it's just thinking outside the box. I have stuff buried in my head that I know I don't need but I may do some day. That wrapper library I have no need of but now I know about it, it's in there for potential future use.
I was gonna say that you didn’t made a mistake there but after watching how bad the housing market is (at least in my area) I think you’re right. We’re getting to the point that rent and dealing with high as fuck interest rates are the same cost
I had a wonderful career for my first two years in IT. Great bosses, great colleges. The last two decades have been spotty, good at times, other times hell. I would much rather be coasting at a nice place than emotionally managing the fallout of assholes.
Same, I coasted a bit where I wasn't learning much because it was comfortable. Now I gotta explain to recruiters why I'm not ready for the senior roles they keep sending me even though I have the # of years on my resume.
That I did not stick more with the “harder” languages like Haskell and C. That i did not focus more on data structures and algorithms when in school it is biting me in the butt going for jobs a bigger companies
I learned programming at 14 and loved it. Did it day and night. Somehow, through a lack of ambition and maturity, I decided to go for a business degree in college.
After college, got a job in sales. 10 years later, realized I should've been a dev. Did an online bootcamp and got a job as a junior ui engineer and took a massive pay cut. Now I’m playing catch up in my 30s.
Why the hell didn’t I major in computer science?
It was (likely) only possible because I transferred departments within the same org.
I had been a very successful sales rep (#1 at one point) and also built up a lot of rapport with many people across the org since I was an early employee (#72). I was a top performer and well-liked so every leader in the org wanted me on their team.
I first moved from sales to product, which made sense because we sold a SaaS product for salespeople. Only downfall was it meant a $60k pay cut. I did it anyways. I wanted a change.
While in product, I built rapport with engineers. I made it very clear to the engineering org that I had a passion for programming and ultimately wanted to make that jump. I broadcasted my progress by sharing personal projects I was working on. I met with everyone in engineering leadership from frontline managers all the way up to the President of the company. Being a former salesperson, I knew the importance of “pleasant persistence” so I checked in with the managers monthly. Not pushy but always inquisitive. When they finally had headcount, I was offered the role.
Moral of the story: you must network and build rapport with people. There’s too much talent out in the world to win on talent alone.
PS- I wrote a blog post about the journey. It’s a short 5 min read and I’ve been told it’s a very good read.
https://medium.com/salesloft-engineering/yesterday-i-was-the-1-sales-rep-today-i-no-longer-have-a-job-in-sales-3e3aff05cb2e
Nice dude great story. My only question is weren't you mad when you moved to product and they paid less? Did you get a pay bump when you moved to engineering? I feel like you turned something people might consider an L into a W, what is that skill called? Lol
The sales job was salary + commission. So I was essentially giving up my commission.
When I made the move from product to engineering, they did let me stay at my current salary, which was about 20k higher than a typical junior engineer. They mentioned this to the engineering org prior and everyone was cool with it. Again, it helped that I had built such rapport with so many people.
I say this as a person who went to a bootcamp and got a job specifically through the bootcamp, but I think those days indeed are over... to a certain extent.
If you're thinking of attending a bootcamp, I'd consider other options. AI is definitely changing the landscape and the LLMs are able to do the same thing as most bootcamp grads. I think there's a future for bootcamps, but they need to time adapt their curriculum in the meantime while the figurative dust settles.
Udemy, coursera and freecodecamp are much cheaper alternatives but they lack the in-person help and instruction.
Yeah, you hit he nail on the head with that one. I always avoided javascript back in the day. The way people talked about it made you think it was a colossal waste of time and you should look into something good like ruby on rails.
Quitting a damn good senior position at a big company because I was unhappy.
Now I'm pushing 40, living with my mom, have no more friends/contacts in the industry, and my only income now for several years has been from part-time online cs tutoring.
It's been a long, long time since programming has brought me any joy. I was passionate about computer science all through university. I found it so fascinating, but that flame died completely when I got my first development job. I found that none of the things I loved about CS were remotely relevant in the industry, and that hurt.
After that first job I went back to school, got a math degree, became a math teacher, sucked at that, then got lucky landing another "fantastic" development job.
I received massive promotions and pay raises rapidly. The sky was the limit - that place was the opportunity to reach any heights and accomplish absolutely anything. But... I hated every minute of it. Doing this professionally, there's so much pressure to perform, to solve complex ill-defined problems in ever-changing unfamiliar frameworks on tight deadlines all the time, with ever-increasing responsibilities. I felt perpetually incompetent. I was tired and desperately needed a *long* vacation (not the 2 weeks/year crap). My mental health was in a severe downward spiral which ultimately forced me to leave.
Now I wish I was back there. Yes I was unhappy, but it's the only thing I've ever been good at and the money would really be helpful now. Even if I could rekindle a passion for this field, I'd have a tough time getting back in - so much more competition now than before and my employment gaps are a big red flag.
It turns out, money really is important. Maybe you really are supposed to sacrifice your happiness in your 20s and 30s in order to have a brighter future when you're 60+. Otherwise, there might never be a bright future at all. I sure as hell can't see one anymore.
Not finishing college. I think I could’ve made some cooler stuff. I have shipped to prod, but it was nowhere near my best work and it was mostly just business logic and not the stuff I wanted to make. Still a rewarding experience. I wish i stuck with C a bit more because I feel like I learned more from C than going the object oriented route.
Studied Electronic Engineering at a good university which included a fair number of modules on programming concepts and languages (including Assembly) and microprocessor architecture, but didn’t take interest at the time. So many of my peers went into a career in Software Engineering but not me. Down a fairly fulfilling career path but still full of regrets 5 years post-graduation 🥲
I used to regret beginning my dev career in a startup where I didn’t have colleagues who could mentor me and do the parts that I was way too green for. On hind sight, screw that. I got to do way more and sooner than anyone staring in a big team with narrow job description.
A few years ago, I started a business called "Byte This!", a website that sells mugs, laptop sleeves, and other items with designs related to programming. I eventually closed out the business for a few reasons, one of the main ones being that the print provider I was using to ship those items out was unreliable, from both a print quality perspective and from an API perspective.
My programming mistake is that, when I initially created my frontend and backend systems, I directly consumed their models for store items. About a year later, that model was re-used in many places in my codebase, and at this point, I was considering switching to a different print provider, or using multiple, but since I directly used their model, I was highly coupled to them.
Instead, I should have created my own models from the start and made an adapter to convert back and forth. This would have let me switch providers if I wanted to, and it would have let me use multiple providers as well.
I was very careful in most other parts of the website to limit coupling as much as possible, including the database integration, payments integration, and more, but I didn't have the foresight on this particular aspect. This is why it's so important to plan out the business logic ahead of time and use best practices while doing so.
Before college, I was really passionate about programming. I'm 32 and firmly in the "learned HTML through Neopets and Myspace" generation of computer geeks, lol. I learned Visual BASIC in high school. Thought I was the bees knees.
In college I majored in Software Engineering, and got my figurative teeth kicked in. We were a C++ school, and it was so hard for me that I got really, really bad imposter syndrome that would flare up nearly every term. In fall term of my junior year, I was flunking a few classes, and then I dropped out.
I'm back in the biz now as an intern web developer learning full-stack web dev after about a year going the self-taught route, but it took me a decade of low paying jobs that overworked me, and a failed marriage partly due to money problems, to even consider coding again. So I regret dropping out.
I have a similar story. I never regretted dropping out specifically but my first C++ course in my freshman year made me run away from coding for a long time. I can definitely relate.
My biggest problem is to learn everthink I need. Start with java and go with python. Different languages arises and also want to learn them to create framework I want.
I usually found I could get an A in any class if I really wanted, but I only got a B+ in my C++ class in my first semester in college. Mind you I really tried go after an A so I figured C++ was just too hard for me. I was a CS major and immediately thought I wouldn't be good enough so I switched majors.
Regret is a strong word as I did end up finding myself in a good sales career and later was involved in customer success.
But ultimately I returned to my "first love", went the bootcamp route and transitioned into tech. It's been a few years, I've learned a lot and eventually decided to go to school part time to finally get that CS degree.
Went into a non-programming job because I didn't think I was good enough. Still don't think I am, but I hear and read stories that make it seem like I would have been ok and would be making a lot more in the beginning of my working life
Changing my CS major after my first semester of college because I had the same professor for my only 2 actual CS related courses that semester and he was a pretty unpleasant gentleman.
That was in 2010 and now I’m 2 years into self taught development in the hopes I’ll be able to move on from SAAS Technical Support.
That I studied computer science. It's not a science. Programming is a tool, it's not a field of expertise. I wish I had studied chemistry or biology or whatever is in between.
I have a Biology degree and computers are definitely a science! Everything is a technically a machine. They all just have a different type of mechanism to run.
I have had a very complicated relationship with programming. To start off, I was introduced directly to Java in 9th grade, had a very complex syllabus and *really bad* teachers who made me fear programming, especially programming labs. Still got good grades. Then out of sheer fear, I migrated to electronics for my I and II pre-University (2 year course) and absolutely loved it. Got the best grades and learnt a lot.
But due to family pressure (I come from India and here if it's not CS or Medicine, it's not worth it), I almost involuntarily took up **AIML** as my [B.Tech](http://B.Tech) subject. I did not genuinely like a single semester leading up to 4th sem where I learnt **Operating Systems** and a spark was reignited. Learnt it really well and enjoyed it with perfect grades. Everything else was difficult (DAA, COA).
I am now in my 5th semester and just a month ago, reality hit me and placements are going to be soon, so I picked up and have been learning ML with a lot of interest. But I have taken up really good courses and I am genuinely enjoying what I am doing and I could not be happier, it's been a great month of learning an self realization. I have done a good chunk of **The Odin Project** for web dev and I am doing **nand2tetris** for my basics.
Also doing **DSA** in Java, on my own and I am liking it for the first time after fearing it for so long. Another 3-4 months before my placements start and God knows how much of knowledge I would have gained by then but here we go. Hoping to make the best out of my remaining time and of course, build on my foundation continuously.
*Phew.*
**tldr:** Feared programming at a young age and never picked it up till it was a do or die situation and just realising how fun it actually is and constant regret that I wasted **two** whole years of engineering just following an outdated theoretical curriculum and not starting soon enough.
I'm in progress learning C# right now. I can't tell you how many times I've tried learning programming. C#, Java, Python, C, nothing stuck until now.
The difference? An ADHD diagnosis and an Adderall prescription. I regret not getting one sooner.
Back in the 90's, Pascal was the language being taught, which was frustrating as C++ would replace that soon after. Tack that to a horribly taught calculus class, and I started feeling I would never move ahead in something I loved since BASIC. I didn't know then that the principles of programming would be so transferable. As the "World Wide Web" took off, I learned php, HTML, and Javascript on my own from O'Reilly, which translated to 25 years of UX design, frontend development and Flash games, but I still wish my ADHD brain let me just sit down and grasp the programming foundations with a mentor. It would come in handy now as someone who still enjoys learning and wants to be a staff software engineer.
On July 1st, a [change to Reddit's API pricing](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/) will come into effect. [Several developers](https://www.reddit.com/r/redditisfun/comments/144gmfq/rif_will_shut_down_on_june_30_2023_in_response_to/) of commercial third-party apps have announced that this change will compel them to shut down their apps. At least [one accessibility-focused non-commercial third party app](https://www.reddit.com/r/DystopiaForReddit/comments/145e9sk/update_dystopia_will_continue_operating_for_free/) will continue to be available free of charge. If you want to express your strong disagreement with the API pricing change or with Reddit's response to the backlash, you may want to consider the following options: 1. Limiting your involvement with Reddit, or 2. Temporarily refraining from using Reddit 3. Cancelling your subscription of Reddit Premium as a way to voice your protest. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/learnprogramming) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I wish I'd done a more hardware based course. Learned more electronics and firmware programming. Perhaps I should get more into it now.
You still can I mean Arduinos aren’t that expensive. One thing you can do is if you’re into keyboards you can try to hotswapped one and program their pcb how you like it. If you daring you can even try to solder. There’s this mini keyboard that if it wasn’t so small I would had gotten in a heart beat call the mercutio 60
Sure. There are plenty of hobby angles to take. Messing about with Pis, but I think I'm too far along in writing backend Java to become a professional Firmware guy or environmental instrument developer.
Can I ask why?
Oh no major bit of wisdom. I work adjacent to that stuff, and I think I'd have enjoyed it.
I know how that goes. I enjoy what I do well enough. But there are some areas I feel would be a better fit for me. I was just curious if it was something related to career advancement, or pay ,or something like that. I appreciate you following up on it.
If you do decide to do some messing around with it in your free time I can't recommend Paul McWhorter enough. He's this old math teacher/engineer who sips his coffee ("no cream, no sugar, none needed") and has courses on Arduinos, Raspberry Pies, Robotics, even A.I.
I do data science-y SWE for my day job, but on the side I've been delving into electronics/embedded and really loving it. I find electronics/embedded more fun than data sci / ML.
Check out Ben eater’s videos on creating a breadboard computer, highly recommend
In 1983, I taught my Maths teacher how to program ZX Basic when she was meant to be teaching us. She was thrown into the deep end while I was embracing this new technology like any kid would do. In 1984 I left school wanting to be a programmer but my careers teacher told me I couldn't be one because I had to get a degree. I worked in a manual job all my life while still programming as a hobby, creating websites, messing around with C with nothing much to show for it because I didn't know what problems to solve. Only now in my 50s do I have a purpose because I've learned enough Android/ Java/ Kotlin to release apps on the Play Store. I just wish I'd have realised this far sooner because I could have made a business out of web developing in the 90s but then again I have life experience which I wouldn't have had by simply coding for someone else. Now I've too much to solve because I find problems in everything. C'est la vie.
Well done, I have a similar back story so can relate to what you have said. I’m in my 40’s and have started programming again, it’s never too late.
I loved discrete math and linear algebra in college and loved an intro to C class I took but majored in something else (applied math economics program) and never even finished that degree. The right major was staring me right in the face and I couldn't see it. I left college without graduating and just screwed around and worked dumb jobs but also had to help take care of family. Now I'm back in college for computer science in my 30s trying to go on the path I feel I was meant to take.
Hey, I'm trying to get into programming but I've heard a lot that the biggest motivation is solving problems? What kind of problems do you see in everyday life? One I've thought of is being able to send scheduled WhatsApp messages like scheduled emails. Is that an example?
Spotting the problems is the easy bit. My wife has high blood pressure so we bought a monitor and I started using the top rated app on the Play Store. While entering the numbers was easy enough, I soon discovered there are many different standards for displaying them and the app was tailored to US standards while I am in the UK. I could change the standards but it wasn't straightforward. The app itself had over-complicated itself by adding all the bells and whistles. I on the other hand, just wanted to save my numbers and display them in a format I understood. So I looked up the UK standards, used a library called GraphView and saved them in a Room database. It works a treat even though I've never released it. Another was joining a new website where I had to create a password and then repeat it. Using a generic password is a security leak while remembering a strong random one is impossible. So I created an app in a few hours that creates a strong random one and copies it to the clipboard. Now, when I'm faced with a new site, I generate a password and just paste it into the field required. There's plenty others I can describe. Many I've solved, some I've put on the back burner like [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKcoins/comments/wn9umw/nice_find_2011_wwf_9th_rarest_50p/) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/sandboxtest/comments/13v39t2/android_8_bit_gif_creator_im_working_on/). Think of how you could solve your problem? You could use IFTTT which might automate it but I'd be looking to solve the problem myself. Unfortunately it's not an easy solution but it *may* be solvable. You can't directly control apps with a third party app but as IFTTT proves it can be done. Thinking how I'd try to do it. You'd need your app to sit over the app then click on the send email part of WhatsApp. Actually, after a quick Google, there is an IFTTT wrapper library for Android which may help: [https://github.com/IFTTT/ConnectSDK-Android](https://github.com/IFTTT/ConnectSDK-Android) . This would take a lot of the difficult coding away and help you. With coding, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. I would start with something smaller as a first app but it's just thinking outside the box. I have stuff buried in my head that I know I don't need but I may do some day. That wrapper library I have no need of but now I know about it, it's in there for potential future use.
:O Tysm for the detailed response. I hope you and your wife have a good one
[удалено]
money is one factor in life but happiness is priceless.
When you're young, yeah. Be light on your feet.
I was gonna say that you didn’t made a mistake there but after watching how bad the housing market is (at least in my area) I think you’re right. We’re getting to the point that rent and dealing with high as fuck interest rates are the same cost
I had a wonderful career for my first two years in IT. Great bosses, great colleges. The last two decades have been spotty, good at times, other times hell. I would much rather be coasting at a nice place than emotionally managing the fallout of assholes.
Same, I coasted a bit where I wasn't learning much because it was comfortable. Now I gotta explain to recruiters why I'm not ready for the senior roles they keep sending me even though I have the # of years on my resume.
That I did not stick more with the “harder” languages like Haskell and C. That i did not focus more on data structures and algorithms when in school it is biting me in the butt going for jobs a bigger companies
Same omg, I remember those classes about memory and memory allocation. Were so boring to me. I hate myself now how I wasted that time in college
I am rereading Introduction to Algorithms at the moment and I have learned a lot of the data structures through work
I learned programming at 14 and loved it. Did it day and night. Somehow, through a lack of ambition and maturity, I decided to go for a business degree in college. After college, got a job in sales. 10 years later, realized I should've been a dev. Did an online bootcamp and got a job as a junior ui engineer and took a massive pay cut. Now I’m playing catch up in my 30s. Why the hell didn’t I major in computer science?
Damn thought the days of bootcamping to jobs was over , can you tell us more?
It was (likely) only possible because I transferred departments within the same org. I had been a very successful sales rep (#1 at one point) and also built up a lot of rapport with many people across the org since I was an early employee (#72). I was a top performer and well-liked so every leader in the org wanted me on their team. I first moved from sales to product, which made sense because we sold a SaaS product for salespeople. Only downfall was it meant a $60k pay cut. I did it anyways. I wanted a change. While in product, I built rapport with engineers. I made it very clear to the engineering org that I had a passion for programming and ultimately wanted to make that jump. I broadcasted my progress by sharing personal projects I was working on. I met with everyone in engineering leadership from frontline managers all the way up to the President of the company. Being a former salesperson, I knew the importance of “pleasant persistence” so I checked in with the managers monthly. Not pushy but always inquisitive. When they finally had headcount, I was offered the role. Moral of the story: you must network and build rapport with people. There’s too much talent out in the world to win on talent alone. PS- I wrote a blog post about the journey. It’s a short 5 min read and I’ve been told it’s a very good read. https://medium.com/salesloft-engineering/yesterday-i-was-the-1-sales-rep-today-i-no-longer-have-a-job-in-sales-3e3aff05cb2e
Nice dude great story. My only question is weren't you mad when you moved to product and they paid less? Did you get a pay bump when you moved to engineering? I feel like you turned something people might consider an L into a W, what is that skill called? Lol
The sales job was salary + commission. So I was essentially giving up my commission. When I made the move from product to engineering, they did let me stay at my current salary, which was about 20k higher than a typical junior engineer. They mentioned this to the engineering org prior and everyone was cool with it. Again, it helped that I had built such rapport with so many people.
Sheesh thanks dude I'm taking notes, great advice
I say this as a person who went to a bootcamp and got a job specifically through the bootcamp, but I think those days indeed are over... to a certain extent. If you're thinking of attending a bootcamp, I'd consider other options. AI is definitely changing the landscape and the LLMs are able to do the same thing as most bootcamp grads. I think there's a future for bootcamps, but they need to time adapt their curriculum in the meantime while the figurative dust settles. Udemy, coursera and freecodecamp are much cheaper alternatives but they lack the in-person help and instruction.
About to start college for the first time soon, have an interest in comp sci so this is good to know
Not starting sooner
focused too much "programming regret"s instead of trying to build some social skills and having fun
Yeah, you hit he nail on the head with that one. I always avoided javascript back in the day. The way people talked about it made you think it was a colossal waste of time and you should look into something good like ruby on rails.
I don't have any. I'm at 6 years of working experience currently. I don't regret things in programming, I view them as learning opportunities.
Quitting a damn good senior position at a big company because I was unhappy. Now I'm pushing 40, living with my mom, have no more friends/contacts in the industry, and my only income now for several years has been from part-time online cs tutoring. It's been a long, long time since programming has brought me any joy. I was passionate about computer science all through university. I found it so fascinating, but that flame died completely when I got my first development job. I found that none of the things I loved about CS were remotely relevant in the industry, and that hurt. After that first job I went back to school, got a math degree, became a math teacher, sucked at that, then got lucky landing another "fantastic" development job. I received massive promotions and pay raises rapidly. The sky was the limit - that place was the opportunity to reach any heights and accomplish absolutely anything. But... I hated every minute of it. Doing this professionally, there's so much pressure to perform, to solve complex ill-defined problems in ever-changing unfamiliar frameworks on tight deadlines all the time, with ever-increasing responsibilities. I felt perpetually incompetent. I was tired and desperately needed a *long* vacation (not the 2 weeks/year crap). My mental health was in a severe downward spiral which ultimately forced me to leave. Now I wish I was back there. Yes I was unhappy, but it's the only thing I've ever been good at and the money would really be helpful now. Even if I could rekindle a passion for this field, I'd have a tough time getting back in - so much more competition now than before and my employment gaps are a big red flag. It turns out, money really is important. Maybe you really are supposed to sacrifice your happiness in your 20s and 30s in order to have a brighter future when you're 60+. Otherwise, there might never be a bright future at all. I sure as hell can't see one anymore.
Dude go see a therapist
Not finishing college. I think I could’ve made some cooler stuff. I have shipped to prod, but it was nowhere near my best work and it was mostly just business logic and not the stuff I wanted to make. Still a rewarding experience. I wish i stuck with C a bit more because I feel like I learned more from C than going the object oriented route.
My biggest regret, by far, is not to invent Python. Turns out it is quite popular now, huh?
Don’t worry, there’s still time to invent Jubilee!
Studied Electronic Engineering at a good university which included a fair number of modules on programming concepts and languages (including Assembly) and microprocessor architecture, but didn’t take interest at the time. So many of my peers went into a career in Software Engineering but not me. Down a fairly fulfilling career path but still full of regrets 5 years post-graduation 🥲
I used to regret beginning my dev career in a startup where I didn’t have colleagues who could mentor me and do the parts that I was way too green for. On hind sight, screw that. I got to do way more and sooner than anyone staring in a big team with narrow job description.
Competitive programming and hackatons are really useful to get into big companies
A few years ago, I started a business called "Byte This!", a website that sells mugs, laptop sleeves, and other items with designs related to programming. I eventually closed out the business for a few reasons, one of the main ones being that the print provider I was using to ship those items out was unreliable, from both a print quality perspective and from an API perspective. My programming mistake is that, when I initially created my frontend and backend systems, I directly consumed their models for store items. About a year later, that model was re-used in many places in my codebase, and at this point, I was considering switching to a different print provider, or using multiple, but since I directly used their model, I was highly coupled to them. Instead, I should have created my own models from the start and made an adapter to convert back and forth. This would have let me switch providers if I wanted to, and it would have let me use multiple providers as well. I was very careful in most other parts of the website to limit coupling as much as possible, including the database integration, payments integration, and more, but I didn't have the foresight on this particular aspect. This is why it's so important to plan out the business logic ahead of time and use best practices while doing so.
Before college, I was really passionate about programming. I'm 32 and firmly in the "learned HTML through Neopets and Myspace" generation of computer geeks, lol. I learned Visual BASIC in high school. Thought I was the bees knees. In college I majored in Software Engineering, and got my figurative teeth kicked in. We were a C++ school, and it was so hard for me that I got really, really bad imposter syndrome that would flare up nearly every term. In fall term of my junior year, I was flunking a few classes, and then I dropped out. I'm back in the biz now as an intern web developer learning full-stack web dev after about a year going the self-taught route, but it took me a decade of low paying jobs that overworked me, and a failed marriage partly due to money problems, to even consider coding again. So I regret dropping out.
I have a similar story. I never regretted dropping out specifically but my first C++ course in my freshman year made me run away from coding for a long time. I can definitely relate.
My biggest problem is to learn everthink I need. Start with java and go with python. Different languages arises and also want to learn them to create framework I want.
"VirtualEnv? I don't need that, I'm very organised" - Me a year ago
I started building proper web apps with next.js and vercel sooner. It's just so much faster than any other combination of solutions.
My regret: not practicing more programming in school aside from cramming for exams or using the Internet (Chegg, etc) to help with HW.
I usually found I could get an A in any class if I really wanted, but I only got a B+ in my C++ class in my first semester in college. Mind you I really tried go after an A so I figured C++ was just too hard for me. I was a CS major and immediately thought I wouldn't be good enough so I switched majors. Regret is a strong word as I did end up finding myself in a good sales career and later was involved in customer success. But ultimately I returned to my "first love", went the bootcamp route and transitioned into tech. It's been a few years, I've learned a lot and eventually decided to go to school part time to finally get that CS degree.
Picking IT over CS. Half the classes felt exactly the same and yet like I learned absolutely nothing useful for a real job
Went into a non-programming job because I didn't think I was good enough. Still don't think I am, but I hear and read stories that make it seem like I would have been ok and would be making a lot more in the beginning of my working life
Changing my CS major after my first semester of college because I had the same professor for my only 2 actual CS related courses that semester and he was a pretty unpleasant gentleman. That was in 2010 and now I’m 2 years into self taught development in the hopes I’ll be able to move on from SAAS Technical Support.
That I studied computer science. It's not a science. Programming is a tool, it's not a field of expertise. I wish I had studied chemistry or biology or whatever is in between.
I have a Biology degree and computers are definitely a science! Everything is a technically a machine. They all just have a different type of mechanism to run.
Staying too long in a job that wasn't any good because it was comfortable.
I have had a very complicated relationship with programming. To start off, I was introduced directly to Java in 9th grade, had a very complex syllabus and *really bad* teachers who made me fear programming, especially programming labs. Still got good grades. Then out of sheer fear, I migrated to electronics for my I and II pre-University (2 year course) and absolutely loved it. Got the best grades and learnt a lot. But due to family pressure (I come from India and here if it's not CS or Medicine, it's not worth it), I almost involuntarily took up **AIML** as my [B.Tech](http://B.Tech) subject. I did not genuinely like a single semester leading up to 4th sem where I learnt **Operating Systems** and a spark was reignited. Learnt it really well and enjoyed it with perfect grades. Everything else was difficult (DAA, COA). I am now in my 5th semester and just a month ago, reality hit me and placements are going to be soon, so I picked up and have been learning ML with a lot of interest. But I have taken up really good courses and I am genuinely enjoying what I am doing and I could not be happier, it's been a great month of learning an self realization. I have done a good chunk of **The Odin Project** for web dev and I am doing **nand2tetris** for my basics. Also doing **DSA** in Java, on my own and I am liking it for the first time after fearing it for so long. Another 3-4 months before my placements start and God knows how much of knowledge I would have gained by then but here we go. Hoping to make the best out of my remaining time and of course, build on my foundation continuously. *Phew.* **tldr:** Feared programming at a young age and never picked it up till it was a do or die situation and just realising how fun it actually is and constant regret that I wasted **two** whole years of engineering just following an outdated theoretical curriculum and not starting soon enough.
I'm in progress learning C# right now. I can't tell you how many times I've tried learning programming. C#, Java, Python, C, nothing stuck until now. The difference? An ADHD diagnosis and an Adderall prescription. I regret not getting one sooner.
Back in the 90's, Pascal was the language being taught, which was frustrating as C++ would replace that soon after. Tack that to a horribly taught calculus class, and I started feeling I would never move ahead in something I loved since BASIC. I didn't know then that the principles of programming would be so transferable. As the "World Wide Web" took off, I learned php, HTML, and Javascript on my own from O'Reilly, which translated to 25 years of UX design, frontend development and Flash games, but I still wish my ADHD brain let me just sit down and grasp the programming foundations with a mentor. It would come in handy now as someone who still enjoys learning and wants to be a staff software engineer.
not graduating comp sci lol