You mentioned Lisp. I just retired last year, and just turned 69. I only use Lisp now (three planned projects for the macOS store, one almost done, and all my writing is concentrated on Lisp) and am dropping other programming languages that I used to also love, including Lisp languages that are not Common Lisp.
I also agree that the Internet is not what it could be but I still find value by finding a few people who I really enjoy, follow their writing and podcasts, and ignore 99.999% of everything else. I also find that reading books is much more rewarding that browsing the web.
I can’t shoot the shit and talk strace or gdb with any of them.
> My first burnout was pure depletion of energy. I was young, passionate, and believed in doing the best work I could. I was addicted to work and pushed myself to deliver. I did, and built a career. I left after almost a decade at that company [...]
(However, I never found a way to leave "Tech" for another profession--especially once I achieved a certain salary range, and others depended on me.)
> I can’t shoot the shit and talk strace or gdb with any of them.
Know the feeling exactly...
This is it. As engineers, we want to build the best can. As managers of a business, we want to product the most profit we can. As marketers, the more income that comes in, the better off we are.
Chose 2 of the 3. Marketing almost always wins one of those slots.
If someone could produce a solid infrastructure to get rid of ads and all that nonsense, but still get a product out in front of everyone, I think that might be the holy grail.
(I hope that if you figure this out - you might give me a .5% royalty) when your successful.
1436.ninja
1436.ninja/1/Port70News
1436.ninja/1/Project_Gutenberg_in_Gopherspace
2f30.org
bay.parazy.de
bitreich.org
box.matto.nl
floodgap.com
fritterware.org
gopher.gluon.me
gopher.viste.fr
gopher.viste.fr/1/ogup/list
gopher://661.org/1if-archive
gopher://adamsgaard.dk/1
gopher://ascraeus.org/1/books
gopher://ftp.icm.edu.pl
gopher://gopher.661.org
gopher://gopher.leveck.us
gopher://gopher.xpenguin.club
gopher://p3x981.com
gopher://republic.circumlunar.space/1/~katolaz/phlog
gopherddit.com
gopherpedia.com
hngopher.com
magical.fish
mozz.us
msbgtn01.synchro.net
port70.net/1/chan
rawtext.club
schinkel.bevuta.com
sdf.org
sdf.org/1/users/julienxx/Lobste.rs
khzae.net/1/chan
bbs.synchro.net/1grp:fidonet
##Usenet is alive too. If you set slrn killing all
##spam, a lot of newsgroups are still bearable.
comp.lang.c
comp.lang.moderated
comp.unix.shell
moral of the story: 99% of people still don't understand the nature of software. very few people--like rich hickey (clojure), or fpb (mythical man-month)--seem to get it. tech is mainstream and most people are missing historical context and experience.
(the goals of capitalism are typically at odds with building systems of the highest quality--and understandably so.)
the only creative spark in computing i have to sooth myself anymore is reading lisp or unix books from the 80s and 90s, because the content is so thoughtful (given the culture and smaller community at the time). the internet has become ruined by advertising and bloatware, and the culture has largely been ruined by bad habits and misunderstanding, imo.