If you didn’t want any replies, you should not have posted. Ha!
But don’t worry, I’m not going to say the usual stuff. This is an opportunity for one of my deeply philosophical answers.
I am 50 now and still believe that the year 2000 is the future. But this is not simply about getting older. Something else has happened.
When I started programming, there were about 50-60 different commands or keywords I could use, and that was it. My mind could easily understand and hold all these, allowing me to re-combine them to create programs. I didn’t have to worry about configuring the environment, whether it be the desktop, IDE or project or frameworks.
In my case, I use computer to create things – and that means programming. I love creating things, but believe there is an optimum balance to be had between restriction and “freedom” in your domain, whether that be the programming tools or artistic tools you use. If your domain has too many degrees of freedom, it becomes harder and harder to genuinely create anything worthwhile, and things become pointless.
Actually, this reminds me of “MS Paint” which is very restrictive and many people actually chose to use it precisely for that reason. It’s restrictive nature imposes a certain style which would not be possible otherwise (below).
I’m currently running Gnome, although I have a love-hate relationship with it. Ultimately, I prefer the relatively few (in comparison to KDE) configuration options. While I put a little effort into making my environment my own, ultimately it is not what I want to spend my time doing. I just want it to work, and realise that if I’m going to use it, I must be prepared to adapt rather than simply demand options that allow my work the way I am used to. On the other hand, I don’t want lot of options – until I do. Then I demand that someone put one in for me.
But more philosophically and generally, computers used to be fun because they were optimal for creation of things which were elegant and in their own way beautiful. While there were once 50-60 commands (degrees of freedom), there are effectively now millions and millions. I lament on this, and it is not simply about getting old.
Were once I could start programming and fire away in a frenzy of creative endeavour, today all I seem to do is manage bloody frameworks. It feels more like a technical exercise in bureaucracy rather than creativity. Were once I knew all the tools, all I do is bring in and re-combine monstrous frameworks. I can no longer write anything without being online to find examples and references. I cannot write C++, for example, without ending up 15 angle brackets deep in the bureaucracy of the Standard Template Library.
If only we could return to relay computers and punch cards, or at least black and white terminals running ANSI BASIC, then life would be so much better. If only people like me didn’t write all this new stuff.
It’s not that change is bad and my attitude has always been one to embrace it. However, there is a limit. It’s the rate of change which is the problem, and has been for sometime. Not directly relevant, but in a broader sense it is, but Alvin Tofler wrote about it in 70s in Future Shock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkUwXenBokU
But to summarise, and to bring myself back – I’m with you brother! And don’t worry about the age thing, it’s not just that.