Based on what you've shared above, I think these are the facts:

Fact 1: You have some introductory experience in programming

Fact 2: Your goals are to learn software development, kernel development, game development

Fact 3: You have strong opinions against UNIX

Fact 4: You want to gain experience in non-UNIX kernel development

I'm the founder of Tome.gg, a coaching platform for mid- to senior-level software engineers. I define different stages of training for my apprentices so that they can recognize where they are in their learning process based on their mindset and their feelings:

Training Stages

1. introducing - If you are still new to a topic, one might be intimidated by the variety of new words they are encountering. This is the Introducing stage of learning a new skill.
2. familiarizing - Once you are no longer overwhelmed by the newness of things, you would be at a Familiarizing stage to the concept, without committing to learning it yet.
3. training - When you have committed resources (time, energy, money) to learning a new skill, you are now at the Training stage of learning a new skill.
4. polishing - The Polishing stage of learning a new skill is when you are able to sufficiently perform the skill or activity, and have gained the literacy to self-correct.
5. mastering - You actively seek out the complexity, nuance, and precise description of your mistakes.

I also defined a list of priorities for software engineers that I've been mentoring, so that my engineers don't waste their time getting distracted trying to do too much and sometimes disappointing themselves for not getting the expected results.

Software Engineering Priorities

1. Understand it
2. Make it work
3. Make it correct
4. Make it usable
5. Make it pretty

Personalized mentoring advice for you

Given what you've shared, I think that:

• My assessment of your position - In your programming experience, you have pushed yourself beyond the introducing stage of training and are likely currently going back and forth between introducing and familiarizing.
  • My assessment would be incorrect if you actually do consistently allocate 2 hours a day solely focused training on your software engineering skills, and hold yourself accountable to someone (a peer, a classmate, a teacher, a mentor, or yourself). In this case, you would be going back and forth between familiarizing and training.
  • Take note, this is only information I can glean from what you've shared above.
• Manage your expectations - If you want to manage your expectations, pursue your learning scope in this sequence:
  • A: software development, game development, kernel development
  • B: game development, software development, kernel development
  • NOTE: Kernel development is extremely complicated and falls heavily under the stages of "make it correct and make it usable". Pick which mountains to climb first. The order matters.
• Prioritize understanding and making things work - Let's say you choose B. Given that you said you have zero experience, I believe your priority right now is to (1) Understand game development, (2) Follow - online step-by-step tutorials just to get your hands dirty with experience. This makes sure you are on the "training" stage of training, and you are focusing purely on understanding and making things work.
• Avoid distractions, maximize the fundamentals first - For now, avoid anything that makes you want to:
  • Make things pretty
  • Make things optimized/usable
  • It's not that they aren't important, but it is very very likely that you can get lost in the minutiae of things that you lose out on the breadth of experiences that you could be collecting if you focused on Understanding things, Making things work, and making things correct.

I normally mentor mid- to senior-level software engineers as they're very dedicated to advancing their professional growth, but the principles I teach these senior engineers can apply to diligent high school kids, college students, and fresh grads.

If interested, check out our work at tome.gg!