I would totally be down for this. I am currently reading zero trust networks (2nd edition), but this is mainly due to the company I am working for looking to open up some web apps to the public internet. I am also reading Net Zeros and Ones to look more at data sanitizing.

Then fun reading is 2001 a space Odyssey.

I think my job requires me to work in too many different areas. So although I can work in several languages and dev stacks, I am probably only a 2 or 3 or less out of 5 in all of them. However, network and server infrastructure, and cybersec/opsec I am probably more in the realm of a 4-4.5.

I don’t mind AI for coding assistance. Sometimes I am writing a function and it suggests basically what I was going to write anyways, then I just have to hit tab and move to the next section. Sometimes I use it to add comment descriptions to my functions so I don’t have to type it manually. Sometimes I use it to spitball ideas.

I think the trick is to use it as a tool to make yourself better, not to do the work for you.

All my homies hate Packt.

Seriously though, I bought one bundle of Packt books and they were some of the most poorly written books I have ever worked through. Not to mention as I got better at the subject, I frequently had to relearn things I “learned” from those books. If it was even correct, it was frequently a bad way of doing something.

I like it. I’m still super new to it and trying to get my head around the rust way of doing things. I can say for sure that I really like cargo. It solves a lot of the problems I had with C/C++.

I just started on rust. So I am working through the Rust book and a book by no starch press.

I think anyone can be too dumb for anything. Personally, there are many things that I feel like I am too dumb for. Specifically things that require artistic ability or emotional thinking. Even as a kid I find subjective topics completely baffling. I always loved math because I was either right or wrong, and I liked science because my hypothesis was some variation of right or wrong. Could I learn an instrument, sure, but by the time I get any good I could have gotten substantially better at something that clicks for me.

Don’t get me wrong, if you find it interesting and have passion for it, that could probably overcome what you are lacking with enough time.

I like making things. And coding had an overall lower cost of entry, and lower overall cost than wood working and making custom hardware projects. I still enjoy the other two, but when money is tight or I’m waiting on delivery of supplies, I work on coding projects.

Over the last 5 years I have went from 50k to 90k. Same company, but recently got promoted to a new department.

I know a handful of languages and I think of them as tools. For example, a flathead screwdriver will work on a phillips screw head (In most cases with some outliers), but a phillips screwdriver might just be better for the job. Same with a wrench and a socket with a ratchet, etc.

When it comes to programming or scripting I approach it in the same way. If I am at work, and I need to automate something quick and dirty, no end user will need to use it, and it is just adjusting data or spitting data back at me, I am probably going to write it in Python.

Or, if I need to make something that an end user is going to interact with, I am probably going to spin up a web server and use the MERN stack to create that.

If I am working at home on a TUI for my favorite application, I am going to use Rust or Python

And if I working on a project that requires me to work with embedded systems, I am probably going to reach for C, maybe C++ depending on the support, and I have in a couple of instances needed to use Assembly.

All this to say, I think that if I had to use Python for all of these, I would be in trouble. Same as if I had to use C++ to accomplish all of the above. Could it be done? Sure. Do I want to do that? Not at all.