I am not a codecel but I studied and work in STEM so I do some programming for data analysis. While it ain't my first rodeo and I know how to get shit done, I also don't minmaxx- my code is slow, inefficient, and crashes computers when transferred to other machines, but it is functional.
So now for the story: back in highschool I was taught programming in Java. It made sense, and it was a good language. I was good at it too. During and shortly after finishing school, whenever I needed to write a program, I'd do it in Java.
But trouble was brewing- the more I googled and researched how to do things in Java, the more I found posts saying I shouldn't use Java. Posts saying that Java is bad, or in fact the worst popular programming language, that it was scary that billions of machines run on it, etc. These thoughts stuck to the back of my head and made me ponder- why would people say such a thing? Java works! It is intuitive, the things I do make sense!
During college I was taught Python. Finally, I'm in the big boys club! I'll learn Python and finally get why everyone is so antagonistic to Java! I'll join the rank of elitist geniuses and spit together on the plebs that start out with Java! Except that didn't happen. I never fully grasped Python
structure=[]
? Wtf is that supposed to mean? Is that a list? A matrix? Something else? It never made sense to me. This made working with Python slow and cumbersome, having to reference stackexchange way more than I had before, all while my peers and tutors praised for how simple it is. Stockholm syndrome hit hard and I internalized this notion. 'yes, Python is good actually. Very good! I just... suck at it.' This carried on for three years. It got better, but still never made full sense.
The last chapter of this journey happened this year. After many, many projects done in Python because 'it is the way', I decided to mess around with microcontrollers recreationally, to make something for fun. I launched my Arduino IDE for the first time and God's glorious radiance blinded me . "What is that? Do I have to... declare variables?" My life flashed before my eyes, I saw myself from a distance sitting in front of the monitor. All these years of coping... All these sleepless nights hating myself over being a Javacel... Every single error message Python has ever given me...
I finally get it! I don't actually like Java! I don't even hate Python in particular! I just hate languages that have dynamic variables that don't have to be declared and assigned beforehand!
It's so obvious now! And all it took me was a single use of C to see it!
I managed to write code for my Arduinos swiftly and without issue, and have been a happy man ever since. Now I've learned not to be limited in my queer identity by a single language, but If I had to chose one, it'd be
Finally I am at peace with myself, and my code runs smoothly. . Learn from my mistakes dramatards, lest you be doomed to repeat them
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