You've seen maybe a handful of videos of mine and you think you know me. I get it: it's easy to watch a video and assume that the content of the video is the person's life. From there, it's easy to start making inferences about what that one data point implies about the person that made it. Maybe you think this is my life: that I drive all of my time into cloning Nintendo games from my childhood.
The truth is, this is an incredibly tiny part of me. It's a side-show of a side-show, the thing I work on when I've finished my day-job, when I've run out of energy for the dozen or so open-source libraries I maintain, when I'm done moderating and maintaining half a dozen online communities, when I've exhausted whatever DIY/electronics project I'm working on right now, when I get tired of engaging in local politics.
This is my kick-back-and-relax project.
You say you work in the industry. Maybe you're in charge of hiring? I do hope not but, if you are, you'll know that the mark of a good engineer is an insatiable curiosity, a desire to learn more and push the limits. A good engineer will use esoteric projects like this not as an end, but as a training ground. For an engineer, it's like going to the gym: problem-solving - especially under extreme constraints - is the best way to keep the mind sharp and hone one's skills.
Sure, nobody wants to play GBA games today: but plenty of people still want to write software for embedded ARM devices, or other resource-constrained platforms: not least, because that's all some people can afford. The best way to show to yourself that engineers have stopped caring about this stuff is to try using the modern web, playing a modern game, or messaging a friend on a device from two decades ago. You'll quickly learn the value of understanding how to write efficient code. That you think learning how to write software like this is 'useless' is perhaps the saddest thing I've heard about the software industry in a while.
I hope you won't take offence to what I've written here: I'm sure you're trying your best. But to be unable to look any further than that which is immediately under your nose, while being convinced that you've got the vision of a hawk, is a serious vice that you should work on fixing.
Comments 1
Re: Someone Is Trying To Bring Super Mario 64 To The GBA
@CLDM Okay, you baited me on this one.
You've seen maybe a handful of videos of mine and you think you know me. I get it: it's easy to watch a video and assume that the content of the video is the person's life. From there, it's easy to start making inferences about what that one data point implies about the person that made it. Maybe you think this is my life: that I drive all of my time into cloning Nintendo games from my childhood.
The truth is, this is an incredibly tiny part of me. It's a side-show of a side-show, the thing I work on when I've finished my day-job, when I've run out of energy for the dozen or so open-source libraries I maintain, when I'm done moderating and maintaining half a dozen online communities, when I've exhausted whatever DIY/electronics project I'm working on right now, when I get tired of engaging in local politics.
This is my kick-back-and-relax project.
You say you work in the industry. Maybe you're in charge of hiring? I do hope not but, if you are, you'll know that the mark of a good engineer is an insatiable curiosity, a desire to learn more and push the limits. A good engineer will use esoteric projects like this not as an end, but as a training ground. For an engineer, it's like going to the gym: problem-solving - especially under extreme constraints - is the best way to keep the mind sharp and hone one's skills.
Sure, nobody wants to play GBA games today: but plenty of people still want to write software for embedded ARM devices, or other resource-constrained platforms: not least, because that's all some people can afford. The best way to show to yourself that engineers have stopped caring about this stuff is to try using the modern web, playing a modern game, or messaging a friend on a device from two decades ago. You'll quickly learn the value of understanding how to write efficient code. That you think learning how to write software like this is 'useless' is perhaps the saddest thing I've heard about the software industry in a while.
I hope you won't take offence to what I've written here: I'm sure you're trying your best. But to be unable to look any further than that which is immediately under your nose, while being convinced that you've got the vision of a hawk, is a serious vice that you should work on fixing.