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Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

izzys.casa

31–40 of 251 posts

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#31
post #7

> I discovered that I not only have OCD but OCPD, a personality disorder. If you’ve ever had a conversation with me where I just couldn’t let something go because it was wrong or incorrect and it bothered me, now you know why. Sounds like about half of the people on internet fora.

Luckily, now we have an alfabet soup of conditions that can cover any obtuseness, quirkiness and non-conformity of your personality. People are no longer told "your are so and so, try to not be that way any more", people now "have" conditions and, while drug treatments usually exists, it requires a lot of compassion from the rest of us.

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#32

> I simply have to accept that there is nothing out there for me. That I will be miserable as long as I continue to work in tech, and that nothing will ever bring me joy in this space ever again. And I have the C++ committee to thank for this. How did the C++ committee cause this?

No post body was provided.

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#33
Throwaway. Having worked in the same company as the author I have to say that I highly respect their work for the c++ language, the continuous effort it takes bringing those abstract concepts into the standard, many not understanding them easily but eventually benefiting from them as an end user. As a distant colleague it was hard to judge their influence on the codebase though. They do have a reputation in the c++ community but it always felt like I didn't see their footprint in our system (as in meaningful PRs) and that they had very strange working hours, strong opinions and preferred working on unrelated semi-personal projects. I wonder if there was any language and community they'd feel comfortable in.

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#34
post #7

> I discovered that I not only have OCD but OCPD, a personality disorder. If you’ve ever had a conversation with me where I just couldn’t let something go because it was wrong or incorrect and it bothered me, now you know why. Sounds like about half of the people on internet fora.

It also sounds like it could simply be the perfectionist subpersonality trait getting stuck in, becoming dominant vs. personality which should consist of being able to flow into different subpersonalities as/when they're useful; I wonder how they, if they try to differentiate between determining what it is.

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#35
post #14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The C++ programmers will just switch to C++ 2.0, aka Rust. It's not a big leap.

I'm not sure I'm ready to learn another language to be honest. After a decade+ of C++ it'd feel like driving on the wrong side of the road and I wouldn't blame any employers who didn't want to take a chance on that :)

It won't feel this way. Most languages are noticeably better and easier than C++.

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#36
It's great to hear that the author got a diagnosis for their condition (I hope that "condition" is not too unsuitable a word). I'm not very familiar with such things, but I can imagine that could be an important first step to understand and mitigate it.

But it seems to me that they're still some way off from understanding their condition. They characterise it as having "extremely high standards" or not being able to tolerate things that are "wrong or incorrect" as well as others. But, from the rest of the post, it sounds like the real issue is something else: where there are genuine engineering trade offs to be made, they get fixated on a single aspect at the expense of any others. When a decision has two or more dimensions to it (e.g. syntax cleanliness vs backwards compatibility, or language flexibility vs simplicity), then someone fixated on a single dimension is always going to be unsatisfied by the decision of someone who tries to make a careful balance.

One result of this is that their language to describe their situation continues to problematic. If you disagree with someone, then it's fair to say "sorry, I disagree, I guess aspect X is more important to me whereas aspect Y seems more important to you". But it's unhelpful to say "sorry, I guess I just have trouble tolerating how wrong you are".

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#38
post #14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The C++ programmers will just switch to C++ 2.0, aka Rust. It's not a big leap.

I'm not sure I'm ready to learn another language to be honest. After a decade+ of C++ it'd feel like driving on the wrong side of the road and I wouldn't blame any employers who didn't want to take a chance on that :)

My advice (after also having spent 'too much' time on C++) is to never focus on a single language, it's better to have a shallow knowledge of several languages than a deep knowledge of a single language (especially when it's a "fractal complexity" language like C++ - the mental capacity to deeply know C++ is enough to be productive with 2..3 less complex languages).

Usually it's not the programming language that's important, but the ecosystem around the language (the standard library, available libraries, interests of the community etc...). Programming languages are mostly interchangeable, but their ecosystems are not. Some are more suited for server backend work, some for writing UI applications, some for scripting and automation, etc...

After a while (and a few languages under your belt) you'll select a language based on a project's requirement, instead of trying to shoehorn every project into your favourite programming language. IME the multi-language approach is much more fun and fullfilling.

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#39
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The C++ programmers will just switch to C++ 2.0, aka Rust. It's not a big leap.

C++ is not going away in the foreseeable future, like it or not.

This is like telling green energy advocates that oil isn’t going away. Everyone knows already. When engaging people consider not assuming maximum naïveté

Re: Wrapping Up 2021. Leaving C++

#40

> The last 10 years of my life writing C++ in a professional context were a complete waste of time that I will never get back. I have nothing to show for it. I don't get this part. The language you write something in has little to do with how useful the software is. I've had years writing fulfilling software, and years where I was just spinning my wheels.

It seems to be one of those nowadays numerous people who invest a great part of their time into programming 'communities' to the point it becomes a defining point of their life, instead of just considering the underlying tool... a tool (or one hobby) among others. It often ends this way.
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