My IT Rant

 So, I semi-retired to take care of my special needs child during this whole pandemic thing.  It was a hard decision.  I was struggling to be productive with my son at home though, and I wasn't getting much help.  There were other factors, but in the end I ended...maybe not but maybe...a twenty two year IT career.

Looking back I was mediocre to good.  When left alone I did some pretty cool stuff, notably doing something with Telerik components for a big web app that Telerik said on the forums couldn't be done.  I didn't know that so I went ahead and did it before I found out it couldn't be done.  I had a few big screw ups too, or more realistically was part of a few big screw ups.  None of them were all on me but I was involved.  The nature of things I guess.

I was never a rock start though I had my moments.  One of the reasons was...well let me put it in laymen's terms... a hyper spaz that lived and breathed technology.  I enjoyed programming but as it grew more and more complex I found myself fighting the technology more and more to get what previously were fairly simple task done started to irk me.  I remembering getting into web development and loving it.  It was the mid 90ies, and yes my web sites had animated gifs and midis.  It was fun and simple.  And the ASP came along with an easy to use syntax for connecting to databases and manipulating information.  About this time though a thought occurred to me.  The programmers are going to really get into the web a ruin it.

I was right.  They did.  Because the money was there I became one of them.  My creativity slowly died (though never completely) and I began to wade through the ever growing layers of C#, SQL, Web Services, CSS, Javascript and the various frameworks, APIs, best practices, design methodologies and patterns, etc...etc.. that make up what you need to know and do to make modern web applications.  Things were (and still are) a moving target.  The last couple iterations of Microsoft tech with Core I kept running into weird stuff with configurations.  The meta part of building a web app became a whole new thing to learn.  Looking back it kind of got a little bland.

Well, as expected, my family is going through my retirement savings faster than originally budgeted for.  I knew that would happen.  So now I have to do...something.  Tech is one of my only skills.  I can also drive a fork lift and dig a ditch, with the ditch digging being iffy at my age.  Plus who wants to hire the near 50 grumpster when they can hire the hot shot kid that they can work to death?  

The other option is for me to go it alone.  Develop casual games.  Write RPGs.  Write novels (with a lot of editing help!). Investigate the paranormal.  Test out of God has a calling on my life in ministry.  Become a youtuber.  Develop a facebook alternative.  Maybe pick up a part time job and do strict budgeting.  I've got to ponder all this for the next few weeks then act over the next few months.

Anyway, back to tech.  In some ways I think web development in particular and programming to a lesser extent but still an extent has become welfare for smart people.  As an example I point to the latest defunct version of Microsoft's web matrix.  It connected to a powerful file based version of SQL Server that could actually do a lot.  It had a powerful dynamically typed data component.  The syntax was the new web pages syntax though kind of sphagetti-ish was very powerful.  I immediately thought back to my classic ASP days and thought this is my tool!  You could also use it to run various non-microsoft stacks like PHP, various CMSs, Word Press, it was cool.

The Microsoft developer community generally HATED web matrix.  They complained that if you didn't write your apps correctly they could be easily hacked...true, but that is true with just about everything.  I also saw comments dreading that beginners could write web apps easily and all the time developers had spent in their careers getting to where they were null and void because web matrix potentially made development so easy.

So what did Microsoft do?  They stopped supporting web matrix.  Even the third update wasn't even complete as the visual interface for connecting to SQL had bugs and was never patched.  Gotta get back to the uber complex stack of so smart people can keep their investments profitable.  Welfare for smart people.

So, being bright but not a genius, do I want to wade into this all again and not only battle with a creative vision of creating either something for myself or someone else, and also battle an increasingly complex and ever changing development stack?  I don't know.  I might shy away from the web part and focus more on the programming part.  

Anyway, end rant.  Software development is needlessly complex and a pain.  Smart people get it done and get it done well by brute force.  I'd like the coding to more get out of the way and the creativity and non-coding problem solving take the forefront.  I might have to fly into this whole mess again.  Pondering how to make it light and fun again.