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.

Fedora 40 KDE. I like it. Longest I have been on the same distro in years.

I use a Deadman switch I wrote myself. I have an encrypted vault that contains information that my wife/children may need to gain access to our health benefits, my life insurance policy info, my PII (code to my personal firesafe containing my SSN, birth cert, etc etc.), my bank account info, steps to file for debt forgiveness on my CCs (I pay a small amount per 100 dollars on my CCs that will wipe them if a supported life/death event happens), college tuition savings accounts for my kids and more.

Basically my goal is to make sure that my family has access to all of our assets and money since I manage our finances, and they have enough Info to change any accounts over to their email and info. I haven’t told them yet but I have been stashing money as well (both in physical cash and a max contribution Roth IRA). If I ever die, I try and keep enough money in cash that no one knows about that will pay for all of their living expenses for a minimum 1 year. Since I do all of the budgeting, I can account for this before the spendable money is made aware to everyone. They would probably hate me now since we run pretty tight on money, but if I ever die I think they’ll forgive me.

I learned python by finding something I wanted to make, then referencing the documentation to learn things I didn’t already know.

If I had trouble with finding it in the docs or understanding, I would just YouTube it/ duckduckgo it until I found a video that made sense.

I just did that over an over again and now about 30% of my day job is writing python.

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.

This is why I drive a 90 accord. Windows and locks aren’t even electronic.

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

Same here. I use logseq asy personal knowledgebase as well.

You have to be able to unlock it (no post paid ATT/Verizon/TMO contracted phones), but you can lock the bootloader again after flashing grapheneOS

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.