• rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Sure, sure, old man. Everything was better when you were young.

    I’m 28.

    There never was a majority of people who were into computers. It was always a minority. And I’d argue that nowadays there’s more developers because there’s simply more people with access to computers.

    I’ve literally said that the kind of access to computers matters. In my childhood it was Windows 2000 (98SE when I wasn’t intelligent or interested enough). In those greybeards’ childhoods - I guess a greybeard is someone who didn’t have a computer in their childhood, but with programmable calculators, or automatic devices (like sewing machines) manufactured then, it was easier to grasp the initial concepts.

    Human brain is not a condom, it can’t just fit something as messy and big even to use as today’s desktop OS’es and general approaches and the Web. It will reject it and find other occupations. While in year 2005 the Web was more or less understandable, and desktop operating systems at least in UI\UX didn’t complicate matters too much.

    Some of them won’t like them, some will be neutral and some will be “geeking around”.

    But the proportion will change in just the way I’ve described.

    And having seen some code from people both older and younger, the younger ones are better (note that it’s my anecdotal evidence). And you at least can train the younger ones, while the “experienced” will argue with you and take energy out of your day.

    Maybe that’s because you are wrong and like people who bend under the pressure of your ignorance. Hypothetically, this is not an attack. Or maybe just those who don’t argue, that’s a social thing.

    Also, of course, people whose experience has been formed in a different environment think differently, and their solutions might seem worse for someone preferring the current environment.

    As you said, that’s anecdotal.

    I’m so tired of the stupid “when I was young, everything was better”. You know what else was exactly the same? The previous generation telling you how everything was better when they were young. Congrats, you’re them now.

    Well, this would mean you’re tired of your own mental masturbation because this is not what I said.

    I’m talking more along the lines of everything coming to an end and this complexity growth being one of the mechanisms through which this industry will eventually crash. Analogous to, say, citizenship through service for Roman empire.

    • Joe@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 days ago

      Grey-stubble Gen-X’er here… The 80s and (moreso for me) 90s were a great time to get into tech. Amiga, DOS, Win3.11, OS/2, Linux… BBS’s and the start of the Internet, accompanied by special interest groups and regular in-person social events.

      Everyone was learning at the same time, and the complexity arrived in consumable chunks.

      Nowadays, details are hidden behind touchscreens and custom UXs, and the complexity must seem insurmountable to many. I guess courses have more value now.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Basically everybody making a game for Amiga made the equivalent of their own graphics drivers. Programming direct to the specialized hardware, and M68000 assembly was so easy and intuitive it was a joy to use.
        But that way of programming apps is completely obsolete today. Now it’s all about abstraction layers. And for a guy like me, it feels like I lost control.
        If you want to program “old school” you have to play with things like Arduino.
        I’m a relic now, that’s just how it is.

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            My wife actually used that for something she needed to be able to remote control a few years back. She tells me it an amazing chip. 😀

            • Valmond@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              Wow cool!

              Yes it’s one of the most cheapest and amazing chips but also not very known about, or so I feel.

              I made a little webserver on it that polled a site I had, so that I could switch (ok, only a led but still) on and off both from the esp and the website. Quite capable little chip.

        • Joe@discuss.tchncs.de
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          5 days ago

          Hah. I was just playing a YT video of modem sounds for my son, after showing him some “history” videos about early PCs, BBS’s, text adventure and early commodore* and PC gaming.

          History? I lived it, son.