Jonathan Blow Made Me Quit My Job | Prime Reacts

i don't want to work at spacex, but i am going to try to be the best engineer i can be. this usually means doing things that are difficult

I would take advice on how to become a good programmer from Jonathan every day. But don't forget to take advice from someone who also looks like they know happiness.

I come from games... there is 100% a skill to finishing stuff, and it's not 'just do it' or 'just finish', which I think is the takeaway most people got from the quote... it's actually the opposite: "Failing to plan, is planning to fail". So, what initially comes off as a water is wet truism, I actually appreciate the depth of the notion: "Just do the stuff you say you are going to do". To me, that really speaks to: 1) Plan and execute on those plans (do the stuff you say you're going to do) 2) Don't scope creep, just do what is planned (do the stuff you say you're going to do) 3) stick to milestones and time budgets (do the stuff you say you're going to do), and 4) just, you know, do the stuff and finish it...

35 years of programming. One thing I learned hands down. People that started with lower level languages always tend to out perform those that started with higher level languages. There is a reason behind. It they understand better at the hardware level how things work. They are used to doing more with less. They are used to creating solutions rather than expecting libraries or others to have created a solution. They don't have the mentality of throwing hardware to deal with performance issues.

The thing about the "take risks" advice is that it ignores realities like wealth, student debt, location. Taking the same type of risk doesn't have the same consequences for everyone. The key is managing risk without letting it paralyze you.

Vast majority of jobs in IT are either web dev or mobile dev. There are simply not nearly enough positions in companies like SpaceX or similar ones that do more challenging engineering. Yes, it is much more exciting and better to work on a rockets than to make websites in React (won't even mention WordPress and stuff like that) but it is really hard to land one of those jobs. It's like playing in the NBA compared to playing at a local gym.

It's ironic that Jon also complains about burnout and doing so much for so little. Much easier to do recreational programming when your bills are taken care of in the first week of the month

"Don't write JavaScript, work for Space-X." Meanwhile Space-X writes touch interfaces in JavaScript!

5:18 I honestly don't like this take. I understand the logic but still... Nobody is perfect. People are stupid and do stupid things. Does that mean that EVERYONE should just quit their job because they do not know what they are doing? NO! It is perfectly normal to not know what you are doing. It means you are pushing yourself out of the comfort zone and it is necessary to grow as a human being. If everyone would just stick to what they know we would still live like monkeys, only guided by instincts that we know out of the womb. It is necessary for civilization to go out and learn new things, and by definition you will not know what you are doing. The feeling that people get, that they are not worth it - "the impostor syndrome" is just that - the feeling that you are worse than the others around you. While the reality is that almost everybody feel the same as you and almost everybody is genuinely shit. And while it is true judgment that most people are shit at their job, the syndrome is about wrongly perceiving your position in the equation. That you are somehow not qualified compared to others. If nobody is qualified - everybody is.

The entire gist of what Jonathan is saying: Get away from your comfort zone and always challenge yourself.

I got pigeonholed into frontend because I started out as a JavaScript developer. Took me 2 years of self-studying to claw my way into computer graphics 😅

Am i the only person who actually like front end development? Not because its easy but because its also pretty creatively satisfying

As a (mostly) web-dev for 20 years - he's not wrong :D

Success is for losers I just need a fuckin job.

Old Hungarian saying: "Always aim higher with your bow than where your target lies". Its not only physics - but more importantly trajectory. When he says spacex - what he says "aim for not the easy path if you can try anything harder"... It does not need be spacex, there are bunch of stuff to aim higher than you currently do!

Prime has nailed the computer science pod cast format. I've been talking to friends for years about how to engage on similar topics. Now I know.

100% true. I'm a former web dev for 18 years. Started with LAMP back in the late 90s. I tried to migrate to Amazon and Microsoft late in career and didn't make it. I was technically a senior or lead dev on paper, but in an enterprise group I was completely unprepared and lacked real skills. After being a highly productive scrappy web dev, I simply could not get anything done at those companies. I spent my formative years working with sloppy juniors and did not know how to hone my own talents. I now no longer work in the industry, because I'm severely burned out. I cannot go back to web dev because I cannot stand doing it. Just thinking about it makes me ill. Do not waste your early years on trivial programming. I work in the hotel industry, and I'm currently trying my hand at making a game in Godot in my spare time. I'm doing things to fulfill my creative needs. Learning music (piano), art (digital), writing, math, and game dev.

Web dev can be hard if you care about consistency in the face of concurrent data access. Pretty much no framework will help with this. But most web devs are clueless and write code full of race conditions. I've noticed the lack of good, deep advice on the internet. So much is broad strokes. I wouldn't ever claim to be the best programmer, but when I don't understand how something works I investigate it. I have a folder of dozens of investigations, and I've thought of making blog posts out of each one. However, time is a factor. I have a job. And 3 kids. And honestly, I'd rather spend my spare time preparing for the next family D&D session rather than writing a bunch of technical blog posts going into details most people aren't gonna care about.

Here is my problem with this: I think an important part of the struggle early in your career is learning to think for yourself, learning how to handle autonomy, learning that there are no experts and that the world is not actually a series of scripts that you can just follow. Simply getting "a hard job" is not enough to learn those lessons. Interning at SpaceX or Apple or some of these notoriously difficult companies will give you no autonomy, will teach you simply to put your head down and do the thing you were told to do, will teach you how to try to read your boss's mind. I think those lessons are just as bad as getting a cushy job that teaches you how to be lazy and program poorly. And at least the cushy JS job doesn't lead to an incredibly high burn out & even suicide rate. I normally agree with JBlow, but I think his advice for young people is a bit off the mark. It fails to take into account the importance of doing work you actually care about to make the struggle worth it, or you won't learn to think for yourself, you'll just learn how to be abused.

Make take on this depends on context: 1. If you want to be a great programmer, it's probably better not to work at a web-dev job using Javascript, and doing 2 hours of work a week. 2. If you aren't that ambitious, have fun with your web dev job, and live your life as you are. Not everyone needs to/should be ambitious. All in all, if you want to improve you have to challenge yourself.