Elitist attitudes are sapping all the fun from programming

post, Nov 5, 2023, on Mitja Felicijan's blog

It's always been like that. Maybe it was even worse before, and I am remembering it with rose-tinted glasses. But from the best that I can remember, it had at least some roots in reality. If something was objectively bad, you could point to it. But what I have started noticing recently is that objectivity is not the only condition to bash on something. More and more, you can use subjective opinion to say horrible things about technology, language or just a specific manufacturer.

And all this has achieved is that I don't really listen to anybody anymore. I don't care what you think about X or Y. I don't care if you like this language or that one. I don't care if you prefer Dell to ThinkPad over Macbook. Who gives a fuck, anyway? If you can do your job on it, why even care about this stuff at all. And if you can't, buy a different machine.

It's like the politics weren't enough. Now the same tribalism is here as well. C developers hating on Rust. JavaScript developers laughing at jQuery users. Rust developers laughing at everybody except Haskell users. And everybody laughing at JavaScript. It's like this never-ending dream, being stuck in high school. Us against your team. It's like we are all stuck being 16. Such a sad state of affair. And it's always been like this. But it's getting worse I think.

Everybody trying to be elitist. Compensating lack of JavaScript features (like type system, for one) with coming up with this insane terminology to make JavaScript sound more sophisticated, as it is. Let's invent terminology to hide flaws and sound more educated and academic. And the same goes for C and all the other languages. All languages are shitty in some ways. For the love of God, why? Just let it be. For once, let things just be.

And I, for one, just do not care anymore. Languages are tools and not your identity. If you need a programming language to fill a void in your life, I strongly suggest that you re-evaluate where you stand currently. Try something else. You are not a C developer, or Go developer, or JavaScript developer. You are a problem solver. That's what you are. And be damn proud of it. You don't need a label to make that more true or more sophisticated.

I use Linux and macOS. I have fun on both systems. In my personal experience, Macbooks are better laptops for what I need them to be. They are better fit for me. Portable machines with an amazing battery life. That's all that I need from a laptop. I don't need to come up with this insane hypothetical scenarios where it will fell short. Yes, it can't water the plants when I am sleeping. OMG, are we really going there. These insane hypotheticals. Who really cares? I don't! I use it, it does what I need it to do, and that is the end of the story. Not only that, but I don't push this down other people's throats. Like Tsodings often says: It is what it is, and it isn't what it isn't. Such wise words. On my main machine I have Linux and had it for more than 20 years and I love it. I LOVE it. I am used to it. And I've had some shitty experiences with it, but damn it, I love it. It does what it needs to do. It fits my needs. And if I needed Windows, I would find a way to love it too. Why not? There is enough love to go around where you are not being elitist and a shithead.

Programming should be fun. Not going through a checklist before you even start, to see if you are using what is considered the “cool” thing. If you are doing this, you already failed in my opinion.

Oh, you are not using this “insert here” algorithm? Such a pleb. Don't you know about O(N) complexity? OMG, such a noob. He doesn't know. Uneducated pleb. 2017 called, and they want their stack back.

Yes, there is a place for all of those things. But not everything needs to be perfect. There is an awesome quote in Uncharted: Sic Parvis Magna. “greatness, from small beginnings.”

I would laugh if it wasn't sad. And in the end, who cares. Let these people worry about making the perfect solutions that will never ship or take years to finish because “Early optimization is the root of all evil.” Everybody has their definition of fun. I just don't want to listen to people preaching to others how to do stuff. If people would just shut up and think before they speak 5% of the time, the world would be a different place. But that will never happen. So the only solution is to not give a fuck.

This is more a rant than an actual post with some solution, so maybe I am a part of the problem. Who knows? Just venting. Every so often it helps.

Do your Rust thing. It's not for me, though. But if it works for you, more power to you. Do your project with vanilla JavaScript. You don't always need TypeScript, Next.js or who know what else to make a button do a thing. Use VS Code or Vim or Emacs or even Notepad if you wish. If you are having fun, then just do it. Don't worry about these elitist pricks. They will never be satisfied anyway. You will never get their approval. So why even bother. Just go for it. Use C, Rust, OCaml, whatever floats your boat. If it tickles you, just do it. To hell with everybody else. And if somebody says O(N) complexity, dude? You can say, OOOOO, fuck the fuck off.

If this post triggered you, then you are the asshole. Probably. Then you probably are that guy preaching about O(N) or this language is soo slow haha. Stop it. Nobody cares! Touch grass.

Anyway, back to having fun. Cheers!



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