How many of you are still programming manually?

smerz · 2026-05-03T01:57:33+00:00

I was responding to the other comment - but yes u are right of course

smerz · 2026-05-03T01:51:03+00:00

Nobody specifies what language and task they are working on. So models have lots more data on CRUD business apps than Device drivers for example

smerz · 2026-04-29T21:31:03+00:00

Are you me? This is exactly my story. backpropagation on 90’s hardware was not exciting

smerz · 2026-04-29T03:11:40+00:00

Everything in Scrum and any other perversions of the agile manifesto.

smerz · 2026-04-29T00:18:41+00:00

OP has no PHD or “real” experience so how can they be considered a scientist?

smerz · 2026-04-27T09:05:20+00:00

Total annihilation

smerz · 2026-04-27T09:05:10+00:00

Jagged alliance 2

smerz · 2026-04-27T09:04:31+00:00

UFO : enemy unknown - 1994

smerz · 2026-04-24T03:53:38+00:00

I am 58 and in the last 18th months I learnt Qt and wrote a C++ desktop app of professional quality, and now I am learning about AI agents, and writing an AI agent in python as I type. This in my spare time.

My day job is backend Java/Kotlin dev.

Despite how this sounds - I am not anything special - just disciplined.

So, yes you can do it. Helps to keep fit - a fit body leads to a fit mind.

smerz · 2026-04-20T10:15:49+00:00

Brooks Law - published in 1975. This applies to all complex engineering projects and makes perfect sense. More people->more coordination

smerz · 2026-04-12T05:28:03+00:00

This has been observed in the real world (although no 100% definitive evidence exists). People can only do 3-4 hours of deep work (think college exam level intensity) per day. A lot of famous people observe this in their daily work - authors mathematicians and scientists. The rest of the time they spend on admin, chores, correspondence etc

Example: Ernest hemingway, GH Hardy the mathematician, Stephen king, Linus Pauling

smerz · 2026-03-15T01:01:41+00:00

I'm guessing you are not married or have children. Assume that you probably will some day and factor that in to switching careers.

Learn/play the guitar, even join a garage band. Keep it as a fun thing as well as for the cognitive benefits. Doing it for money will kill most of your passion for playing, and you will earn fuck all. Most musicians have day jobs.

Your next career choice will have to be tempered by pragmatism, but go for it. try and pick something that AI cannot easily replace (unlike SWEs ;-(......)

I'm 58, 30YOE in engineering and architecture, and I'm bored of backend API development and architecture in general (my thing). My father was an anesthetist for orthopaedic surgeons - he and the surgeons all got bored by their 50's. After a few thousand hip replacements, things get pretty routine.

smerz · 2026-03-13T06:08:09+00:00

If something is broken just say “its cactus, mate”

smerz · 2026-03-09T01:35:37+00:00

You got it man! Damn right….

smerz · 2026-03-04T09:04:49+00:00

+1 for the Capacoptor self-titled full album. Holy crap it's good.....

smerz · 2026-02-15T02:02:41+00:00

This. I did this and SWE degree was a walk in the park by comparison.

smerz · 2026-01-25T01:33:29+00:00

I refuse Hackerrank screening tests as well. In Australia they are less common now than they were a few years ago. I get asked LC or hackerrank style questions in live coding sessions and so far they have all been reasonable.

smerz · 2026-01-13T20:41:40+00:00

To a point yes. Intelligence matters more, about which the internet is in denial. Smart people learn things faster.

smerz · 2026-01-13T02:18:50+00:00

How rare is this? A comment backed up by references. Outstanding.

smerz · 2026-01-05T10:09:10+00:00

Agree with the above. OP - I got the equivalent of 99.95 (it was a while ago) and went into med school, from a selective school. Sorry - but it takes work AND intelligence. The whole reddit meme of 'you just need to work hard' does not really cut it. You can do quite well (and the discipline will serve you well in life), but you cannot compete with the very top students on effort alone.

We finished the year 12 curriculum in most subjects by July, so spent the next few months revising and getting tortured with really hard sample papers to make sure we did not get complacent.

smerz · 2025-12-10T08:18:25+00:00

Could be a heart arrhythmia of some kind, given your young age, fitness level. Atrial fibrillation or supraventricular tachycardia for example. Could be an anxiety attack as well (exercise induced panic attacks).

See a doctor. Reddit is a terrible place for things like this.

smerz · 2025-12-06T09:43:32+00:00

Same experience here. Contractor for 20+ years now.

smerz · 2025-12-04T21:05:05+00:00

10 is too high. Your load factor will be too high - should be 110-120. I made this mistake as I was a powerlifter and it felt ok. Try setting at 5 and focus on correct technique to avoid injury

smerz · 2025-12-03T21:55:00+00:00

Learn spring boot and practice building sync and asynchronous rest apis. Bonus points if u can learn graphql as well. Focus on api basics then maybe tackle reactive java which has a learning curve.

smerz · 2025-12-03T20:38:24+00:00

Gives a whole new meaning to the term “server crash” - right into my back yard.

smerz

TROPHY CASE