My first "hello world" was a blinking light on a breadboard. Now I just type print('hello') and call it a day.

I tried learning to code back in high school around 2008. Didn't have a computer that could run much of anything so I got one of those Arduino starter kits from a friend. Spent three whole afternoons just to get an LED to blink. Had to write the code, upload it through a serial port, and if the voltage was wrong the whole thing would freeze. Felt like a genius when that light finally flashed. Fast forward to last week and I'm learning Python for a side project at work. Typed print('hello world') and it just worked on the first try. No wires, no voltage issues, no frustration. But honestly I kind of miss that feeling of wrestling with the hardware. Made the win way sweeter. Anyone else start on something clunky and feel a little nostalgic for the struggle?

3 comments

3 Comments

skyler_smith8525d ago

You ever get that feeling again with the Python?

terry_thomas22d agoMost Upvoted

Ha! That's the thing @paige427, right? The boring stuff works too well these days, no drama. I think the struggle taught us how to actually think through problems instead of just guessing until it compiles. Missing that grind feels weird but it built something in us, lmao.

paige42725d ago

Had a buddy @skyler_smith85 who spent an entire weekend trying to get a Raspberry Pi to just show a pixel on a screen. Turned out he had the wrong resistor on the GPIO pin. When he finally saw that little red dot, he said he almost cried from relief. Now he writes code that runs whole databases and it bores him to tears. Funny how the hard stuff sticks with you longer.