We need more people in this world willing to do their own thing, even if others might find it intimidating or silly. The important thing is to have fun and learn things. Compiler hacking is just as good as any other hobby, even if it's done in good jest.

Sometimes, these things become real businesses. Not that this should be the intent of this, but it shows that what some consider silly, others will pay good money for.

Example: Cards Against Humanity started as a bit of a gag game between a small group of friends and eventually became something that has pop culture relevance.

Example: The founder of FedEx actually wrote a business pitch paper for an overnight shipping company. This paper was given a low grade by his professor. He went on to form this company, which become a success, despite this low grade. I like to think that he did this out of spite, and that Christmas letters to his old professor must've been fun.

This all is good advice. Don't be intimidated, try new things, have fun.

On top of that, keep your day job. Or have enough wealth to not need it. Otherwise fun may cease gradually, then abruptly. Keep the lower levels of the Maslow pyramid well-maintained.

I joined a compiler team out of college because it seemed like fun and I'd never worked on compilers before.

I went from C# to embedded engineering and reading clock and wiring diagrams because there was a job that needed doing and I was the one there at the time.

I went from embedded programming to running my own startup based on Javascript and React (technologies I'd never used) because I had an idea I wanted to share with the world.

Just go out and try to do things, you may be surprised with what you are capable of!

Here's the code from the bsky message using chatgpt to extract it from the image. It is apparently a K program that reads an image and renders it as ascii. I haven't checked for errors as I'm on my phone.

round=:<. @: (+&0.5)

(gr=:{[ round +/0.21 0.72 0.07y ]})[grPxl=:{({x,y},3$gr}.y)}]

(sla=:34 b.) [ (and=:(16 + 2b0001) b.)[byte=:{[ 16bff and y ]}] (splitrgb=:{[ byte 24 16 8 0 sla y ]})[joinrgb=:{ +/ 24 16 8 0 sla y } }]

img=:(load 'graphics/png')readpng 'she.png' height=:>.width%$img[width=:100 ratio=:( $img)%height,width nn=:{ round x * y }} idx=:ratio(nn'1)(width,width)#:.i.height,width alph=:'$@B%8&W#oahkbdpqwmZ00QLCJUYXZcvunxrjft/\|()1{}[]?-_+~<>i!lI;:,^`". ' chr=:{ (>.(($alph)-1)*y%255){alph}} ascImg=:'',2 chr"0 gr'll ';' splitrgb"0 (<idx) { img (puts=:{ y 1!:2 (4) })[puts , ascImg ,. LF

I don't work in programming, but "you can do hard things" applies to my work as well. It drives me nuts when coworkers refer to me as really smart when in fact I'm merely curious. "I have no idea how you did that!" You should ask. That's how I learned it.

Not addressing the content directly but a note on the formatting:

I find it extremely hard to read sentences by people that refuse to use normal formatting/grammar. Why is there no capitalisation? I've seen this before and it's just confusing and jarring. Clearly this is done on purpose but I don't know why an author would be so anti-reader.

I really resonate with it. When I was a teenager I was a burn out. I went to college and became enamoured with a field of study. Everyone thought I was very smart and people would drop the g word and it made me feel gross. I always just wanted to learn everything I could.

Now I am in a very different area of practice. Partially because I got tired of being good. Making young professionals give talks to factory floors about things they can't relate too, getting hired because it would look good for an acquisition, etc. it's draining and makes it hard for colleagues to realize they are your equal or even more exceptional at many things than yourself.

I actually worked with Jyn, though we don't keep in touch I will say they were great. Made strong contributions, learned new things quickly and was genuinely curious about everything. It's cool to see them on here. Nothing but good wishes for them and I hope they are enjoying whatever they are doing now. Come to think of it, I feel that way about all my former colleagues.

The Practice Guide of Computer is really a gem, and the bottom lines sentences are just golden (now I understand what they meant when people mentioned bottom lines) of part D: Rid yourself of the following reasons of being a practioner of computer.

To add a cliche, according to Mark Twain, "Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life". Or may I add, you probably not going to retire anytime soon.

I feel like I can't have fun anymore because the AI can just do the thing instantly and you've got people on this website advocating to let the AI do everything while you merely read the code.

I like doing goofy things with code. I wrote an s-expression parser using TeraTerm (BASIC-like language). I came up with this generator only recursive descent thing in python. I never did anything with these except to fiddle around and see what was possible. Goofy stuff in code makes me happy.

I like it. I've worked with the occasional programmer artist (at least one has an HN account). Not in the "elegant and austere like a suspension bridge" sense, but in the "what the fuck? no! stop reorienting my brain!" sense. They're rare and precious like a delicate orchid, and annoying as hell like a delicate orchid that gives you a rash. That magenta PR? Definitely art.

Finally some practical daily affirmations for computer

Dear Mitchell Hashicorp,

I’m sorry for not taking your terminal emulator serious.

Your comment on the red site resonated.

> I have a perpetual chip on my shoulder because I'm also in the camp of doing things primarily motivated by having fun, but people in and out of my life repeatedly not taking it seriously. You can have fun and also consider your work serious (or, have it actually be serious by various metrics).

https://lobste.rs/s/wilmno/i_m_just_having_fun#c_ziuqlv