I look back at the beginning of the PC era, which I hated.

We had modern multi-user and multi-tasking operating systems. We had decent high-level languages.

But the PC era started with DOS, a single-user operating system. And basic, which was so unsophisticated.

But looking back later I realized that the unsophisticated operating system and the unsophisticated language... they let normal people do things. You didn't need to understand semaphores or event-driven programming to make simple single-user programs.

And I kind of see people stuck in this distracting learning environment with too many moving parts, I think back.

There are projects like NAND2Tetris that IMO successfully capture that ethos. I’m also heartened by the retro movement, which keeps going from strength to strength.

That's why I like dabbling in Arduino - it is a very limited environment, with fairly linear code-flow. It harkens back to those ancient times.

... occasionally dabble in Lazarus/FreePascal to also scratch that "mid-90's" itch.

Admittedly, these days, I avoid web-based programming at every opportunity - am sick of learning new frameworks, new paradigms, etc.