This is actually not a good advice, from my experience. If we don’t monitor, refactor, or improve the code, the software will rot, sooner or later. “Don’t touch” doesn’t mean we don’t ever think about the code, but we make the conscious choice not to modify it.

This + org-mode are enough for me to switch to Emacs.

Better learn COBOL now.

DUPLICATED, CLOSED, etc.

Joke aside, for an open question I’d prefer posting on Reddit/Lemmy/forums to have an open answer.

SO is too strict on its policy.

my nerdy friend that went on that journey with me is a musician and fashion model lol.

Maybe his/her experience in keeping the system simple and beautiful helped him/her recognise the passion in art.

Haha your post made me reflect my journey. I had fun in college tinkering Arch Linux with i3. Now I’m an Infra Engineer (or DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, SRE, whatver) and still do the same job—keeping the system “reliable”.

That’s why I like it. No BS, no ads, no commercials, no show-offs, etc. Just some people with a bit of free time share their knowledge and stories.

I do wish we have more vibrant non-tech communities, though.

Then you have Clojure - a machine gun that shoots shivs.

Clojure. It’s just fun to write.

Firstly, it’s functional and “Lispy”. My code is super expressive. Writing code is like writing prose where I can choose a word (function) from a large vocabulary [1]. I can focus on high-level concepts and modifying states instead of fighting with low-level logic.

Secondly, it runs on JVM - an already robust and performant platform.

And there are so many good things that I cannot simply write in some words. The father of Clojure, Rich Hickey, is a genius in expressing Clojure’s design. You should check out some of his talks [2].

Too bad that Clojure is too “niche” that I haven’t got a chance to make a living by writing Clojure, yet. But learning it is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my career. Yes, it’s that good.

[1] https://clojuredocs.org/

[2] https://github.com/tallesl/Rich-Hickey-fanclub

Code aesthetic: If your code looks like a triangle, you’re seriously doing something wrong.

Looking at your picture makes my neck hurt.

My boss allows people to WFH officially, but also establishes several small office spaces so people can come to hang out if they feel lonely, or want to get to know their colleagues more. I think this is the best of both world.

Let’s be honest, even if you finish that 600-page book, you might not “crack” the algorithm interview. The inteview requires you to grind the question, or simply a lot of practices.

From my personal experience, AWS is extremely powerful (especially on security and networking). If you cross the learning curve, and know automation or Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform) then it’s fast and easy to build almost any architecture.

But yes, it’s overkill for a simple website or a simple setup (if one is not familiar with AWS).

Markdown is good. I use it when working in the company since the format is ubiquitous. I do writing my blog posts with Markdown (Hugo for the curious).

But personally, or working with a bit more niche team, for writing personal documentation I prefer Asciidoc [0]. It has better syntax and have some nice functionalities like Table of Contents.

For personal notes, nothing can surpass Org Mode [1].

[0] https://asciidoc.org

[1] https://orgmode.org

I usually check in with myself:

• Am I growing in my career?
• Am I happy with my current workplace: people, culture, flexibility?
• Am I valued to the company, i.e. my opinions are considered and regarded to some certain?

If one or two of these conditions failed, I would consider moving. After all, if I went to a workplace and I didn’t find any joy or recognition, the paycheck wouldn’t make me stay.

Well, people tend to pick the easiest way to achieve an objective, even though the solution is not simple nor optimised.

Also recommend. Some audio lessons are interesting.

Wait until you meet “Platform Engineering”/DevOps. The sheer amount of CNCF projects and new tools out on a daily basis are on par with the JavaScript world.

AWS (Route53 specifically). Not common but my personal lab runs on AWS so it’s nice to have a place for everything.