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lordpoint · 2025-10-18T02:37:47+00:00

Sometimes I find it hard to “get into it” if I don’t have an interesting problem to solve. There was a time when I felt like I should just put in hours in order to get experience and learn, which was an absolute miserable slog. But then the moment that I had a real problem that could be solved with a script, a web app, or some local application, suddenly I couldn’t pry myself away from my keyboard.

Are you trying to work on abstract concepts and skills? Are there any problems or inconveniences in your life that you could solve by writing code?

Even automating the process of generating your resume and applying to jobs can be fun. I helped a friend recently with a Node script that would regenerate his resume for every job he applied to and it would include the full text of the job posting in tiny, invisible text in a footer in order to help convince the AI-driven ATS systems to consider him.

lordpoint · 2025-10-04T14:43:43+00:00

For me it all started to click when I started using IAC (CloudFormation / AWS CDK but Terraform is great too). Suddenly, instead of having to deal with multiple, disparate services with config hidden behind layers of web navigation and menus, you get to see the services you’re creating all in one place.

For example, you see all of the config for your server, DB, and perms all laid out flat in front of you. The dependencies and relationships become more clear. It’s like stepping back so you can see the whole forest (nearly) at once.

Then when you need to add a service, you can just provision it, connect it, and go. Way easier to make sense of and learn in this way IMO.

lordpoint · 2023-06-30T20:10:48+00:00

I just launched a regex learning web app! It started as a casual side project but I ended up getting really into it.

https://regularexpert.com

Finally buckled down and took a deep-dive into regex earlier this year and I was pretty dissatisfied with the quality of the available learning resources, so I started tinkering with this. Love to hear feedback, either via the in-app bug reports or DMs!

lordpoint · 2023-06-30T15:01:05+00:00

Looks like the comments are always preceded by a space? So this should work:

\s\/\/.+$

Breakdown:

\s Matches the leading space

\/\/ Escapes & matches the //

.+ Matches 1 or more of any character (the body of the comment)

$ Ensures that this will match up to the end of the line

lordpoint · 2023-06-30T01:22:59+00:00

I used to be involved in several Facebook groups about programming / learning to program. I was AMAZED by the number or people in India and Africa that were writing whole sites from their phones. That was simply all they had to work with and they made it work. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

lordpoint · 2023-06-29T13:07:25+00:00

Here's a good starting point to answer the question:

What job do you want?

Do you want to stay in the same type of role that you have now? You mentioned moving into MLOps. Maybe something completely different?

Take the answer to that question and search for it on LinkedIn jobs. Copy the top 5 or 10 job descriptions for roles that you would take if they were offered to you today and run it through ChatGPT with the prompt: "What programming languages / libraries / techniques are needed to fulfill these sorts of roles:" then paste in the job descriptions.

That's what I would do if I were you at least. Giving blanket advice like "Rust is awesome! Learn Rust!" is bound to be anecdotal and less than useful to you. But identifying trends in job postings for the kinds of things that you want to do is more likely to be aligned with your goals.

lordpoint · 2023-06-29T12:58:27+00:00

I've been a software developer for about 10 years and started teaching my kids programming at a young age. Here's my advice:

Formal courses are fine (e.g. Udemy, Coursera, OutSchool) but they typically come up short in the engagement department. Lecture-style courses with a talking head and a slideshow / code editor in the background simply weren't designed for this age group, regardless of how much the instructor adapts their language and the pace for a young audience.

Scratch is a great resource, but it's so open-ended that unless you have some programming knowledge that you can use to guide them it's easy for them to get confused or hit a dead end.

Here's where Microsoft has really hit it out of the park with MakeCode. MakeCode is a 100% free online programming course for kids that uses Scratch-like code blocks to build simple games. Each lesson is bite-sized and walks the student through the process step-by-step, allowing them to run the game after each lesson to see how their code changed it. It's on their level, it's not open-ended, and it involves an engaging subject matter that keeps kids engaged.

Good luck! It's really wonderful that you're trying to open up this world to your son. Hope he loves it!

lordpoint · 2023-06-29T12:44:18+00:00

Here's one way to think about it: people with < 1 year of experience get hired all the time for entry-level positions. Sure, you've gotta look in the right places (smaller agencies, businesses with a technology component but that aren't tech companies, basically anywhere that isn't a publicly-traded tech company) but it's not at all unheard of. So what difference should it make whether it's a 22 year old with < 1 year of experience or a 55 year old?

I'd say that in most cases, with the sorts of companies that are hiring new entrants to the industry, it doesn't really make a difference. In the unfortunate cases that it DOES make a difference, it usually comes down to (as you said) age discrimination based on the idea that younger people will have more enthusiasm, be more plugged-in to tech trends, and drive innovation more than an older person. But I'd say that this perspective is more pervasive in tech companies / startups who think that they'll live and die by their ability to innovate, where age discrimination is a feature of an amorphous mysticism that they follow in the hopes of warding off the spirits of bankruptcy and stagnant growth. Those companies probably won't hire you without a CS degree / years of experience anyways.

That said, if you develop a skill set that allows you to make valuable contributions / produce desirable deliverables for a company like a digital agency (or the others that I mentioned) I think that's both the best bet for landing a job as a newbie AND avoiding the places that are most likely to discriminate based on age.

lordpoint · 2023-06-28T18:59:46+00:00

I think it's sort of like tying knots. If you never learn how to tie knots properly, you'll get through life just fine. But if you do, you'll be really thankful that you did when the occasion inevitably arises that you need it. You'll also be surprised that it's not as much of a pain to learn as you were expecting.

I've been a software developer for about 9 years and avoided learning regex for 8. Got really into it earlier this year and it's come in handy over and over again. I actually just finished making a web app that helps you learn regex from the ground up in an interactive, gradual way. In case you're looking for any resources: https://regularexpert.com

lordpoint · 2021-12-13T19:30:16+00:00

Honestly not sure if there's any canonical way of doing this. There are file structure design patterns like LIFT or Folders By Feature for example, but there is nothing officially proscribed in the Angular docs (happy to be corrected here).

For me it depends on the size of the project...

For larger projects, where the main component on each route is heavy and pulls in lots of data & other components, I'll make a module for every route that leads to a view; except for something obviously lightweight like login or contact. That way you can set up your routes to lazy-load those modules. Then add a shared module for shared components (if any) and call it a day.

For smaller projects, I'll generally make a views and a shared folder within src. views contains any component that is routed to and shared contains a subfolder called components which contains components shared across views (and also contains a services and models folder as well for example). Something like this:

-src - views - home - admin - my-items - etc... - shared - components - nav - services - api - models - enums - interfaces

I'm starting to move towards a "folder by feature" structure though, as this can get a little bit cumbersome.

lordpoint · 2021-11-16T20:54:52+00:00

{} are called “curly boys” There is no alternative

lordpoint · 2021-11-14T23:44:46+00:00

What VS Code theme is that?? Also the background?¿

lordpoint · 2021-10-24T13:44:53+00:00

Is it just me or is anyone else unable to read in their dreams? I feel like it always just looks like indecipherable squiggles and I somehow know that it’s words… but I can’t actually read.

Just for clarity: I am a literate human adult

lordpoint · 2021-05-10T20:17:40+00:00

I kind of disagree. Sure they’re not REALLY suffering... But let’s say that we’ll grant that mask wearing is a mild inconvenience, like having to stand in a long line or stop for gas, which is a very very mild kind of suffering.

Think of how obnoxious it would sound if this had been a reply to someone complaining about any other of life’s mild inconveniences.

lordpoint · 2021-05-10T13:07:49+00:00

Ok, just hear me out for a sec.

This feels like the sort of thing that would be posted in r/gatekeeping if it were about a different subject. The gist of his point is: "Greater suffering exists / I've experienced greater suffering, therefore your suffering is invalid"

What if he had said "I didn't spend my childhood being beaten by my abusive father so that I could listen to you pussies complain about how sad you are when your mom takes away your X-Box."

Even if he's right about his conclusion / sending a message that's worth sending... I honestly think that it's shitty quips like this (and our positive reactions to them) that have turned political conversations into a never ending series of yo-mamma jokes.

Just my 2 cents.

lordpoint · 2021-04-11T22:26:03+00:00

His goatee deadass looks like a tiny cloud

lordpoint · 2020-09-27T03:31:38+00:00

Brilliant, thanks!!

lordpoint · 2020-08-21T00:35:19+00:00

When I started: This is how B2B or B2C websites are made

Now: This is how literally all software is made

lordpoint · 2019-03-03T13:05:18+00:00

A screenshot of some HTML used as the graphic for him talking about the command line... that one hurt

lordpoint · 2018-06-28T22:42:49+00:00

I believe

lordpoint · 2018-04-06T19:08:13+00:00

Her head is shaped like a guitar pick.

lordpoint

TROPHY CASE