[japhyr]

I first learned programming in the early 80s, but never took it too seriously until the mid 2000s. I first learned Python at a time when I thought I'd do most of my serious work in Java.

That was a time when Python was rarely someone's first language. People would say, "Try Python, your programs will be about a third as long as they are now!" I was skeptical, but holy heck those people were right.

I am academic enough to enjoy the intellectual challenge of being conscious of memory usage. But when you had to pay attention to it in every project, it was not always fun. It was really fun to use Python and forget about memory for a while. I built many projects in Python that I probably wouldn't have made time for in Java.

I really enjoy programming these days, where you can forget about memory until you have a reason to optimize. Then when you do need to optimize, you can profile your code with fantastic tools, reason about memory enough to get things working efficiently again, and move on with the project. I really enjoy hopping back and forth between focus on a larger project, and focus on the inner workings of a project.

I think we're seeing the same kind of fundamental change with GPT-assisted programming. There's a whole generation starting to use these tools right now who will ask a question on a 2040s version of HN, "Was programming more interesting when correct syntax was a concern?"