<![CDATA[I’ve been working with computers for five decades.]]>I’ve been working with computers for five decades. Some people view me as an “expert” in certain subjects.

And I can tell you that when I am learning a new technology I still feel like the dumbest newb on the planet. I make tons of mistakes. I go down stupid rabbit holes of my own making. I have tons of self doubt.

So give yourself some grace. Everybody goes through this phase. Take a deep breath. Believe that you can do this.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/8b55a5cc-4c5a-4586-9605-61a4ac2b4bd9/i-ve-been-working-with-computers-for-five-decades.RSS for NodeSun, 12 Jul 2026 13:05:54 GMTSat, 11 Jul 2026 02:11:36 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:17:17 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz I love this. What a great reminder. I’ve been doing what I do for about 28 years now. I always tell people that I know a lot about it, but not everything. I learn something new every day.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mas.to/users/markwyner/statuses/116899881787845631https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mas.to/users/markwyner/statuses/116899881787845631Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:17:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:09:09 GMT]]>@grumpydad And what is that? I'm a bit of a newb with comp stuff. Working through William Schotts "The Linux Command Line:"

Haven't got to the chapter on peripheries yet

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/asyetundecided/statuses/116899849827439200https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/asyetundecided/statuses/116899849827439200Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:09:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:05:29 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz Same here. I've been educating people about how to use computers for almost thirty years, and I'm currently procrastinating dealing with the app for the cat box because it makes me feel so stupid.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://neurodifferent.me/users/Cetraria/statuses/116899835348251118https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://neurodifferent.me/users/Cetraria/statuses/116899835348251118Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:05:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:04:34 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz
Ditto five decades… 👋👋

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sfba.social/users/cynblogger/statuses/116899831799170847https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sfba.social/users/cynblogger/statuses/116899831799170847Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:04:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:04:33 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz
What really gets me is going away for awhile and coming back. It is astounding what I used to do. I know it can be done but have to look up every little thing.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sfba.social/users/elein/statuses/116899831726035522https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sfba.social/users/elein/statuses/116899831726035522Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:04:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:50:28 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz

Am learning this also applies to gardening

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/mastodonmigration/statuses/116899776308945972https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.online/users/mastodonmigration/statuses/116899776308945972Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:50:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:48:49 GMT]]>@asyetundecided @Arapalla @hal_pomeranz Plotters obviously 😄

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/grumpydad/statuses/116899769850913718https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/grumpydad/statuses/116899769850913718Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:48:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:45:13 GMT]]>@Arapalla @hal_pomeranz but what's the alternative?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/asyetundecided/statuses/116899755707881852https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/asyetundecided/statuses/116899755707881852Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:45:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:43:10 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz I've learned that
- going into stupid rabbit holes of your own making
- having tons of self doubt
- making tons of mistakes
are actually the predispositions for becoming an expert. Think of all the people who don't have those traits - overconfident, shallow, impatient, ... they will never become experts.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.io/users/chebra/statuses/116899747597824750https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.io/users/chebra/statuses/116899747597824750Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:43:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:32:44 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz I've only been doing this for a bit over four decades, but I concur.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://toot.liw.fi/users/liw/statuses/116899706574366725https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://toot.liw.fi/users/liw/statuses/116899706574366725Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:32:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:11:22 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz I forgot how to write a crontab(5) entry this week.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/nomad/statuses/116899622591174821https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/nomad/statuses/116899622591174821Sat, 11 Jul 2026 05:11:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:54:14 GMT]]>@NuclearOatmeal @hal_pomeranz

Very interesting. Never considered, or encountered this approach, 30+ languages in, and I stopped counting at least two decades ago.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.radio/users/vk6flab/statuses/116899555201549456https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.radio/users/vk6flab/statuses/116899555201549456Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:54:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:24:40 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz Can you help me with my Dot matrix printer?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/asyetundecided/statuses/116899438940438256https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/asyetundecided/statuses/116899438940438256Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:24:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:23:12 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz
I am such a slow learner. It takes me years of letting a new tool or technology wash over me before I become competent. And yet, I am employed and a seemingly valued and respected employee. Stick it out. You've got this. Or, you will get this.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/mahony/statuses/116899433159606370https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/mahony/statuses/116899433159606370Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:23:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:15:34 GMT]]>@mherbert @hal_pomeranz I think maybe it's the fixing of mistakes that is the learning part. You can make mistakes all day long and not learn shit--not even know you're making them.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/crazyeddie/statuses/116899403169923600https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/crazyeddie/statuses/116899403169923600Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:15:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:13:38 GMT]]>@shnhrrsn @hal_pomeranz If you ever feel dumb it's because you finally smartened up enough to realize it 😉

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/crazyeddie/statuses/116899395548922454https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/crazyeddie/statuses/116899395548922454Sat, 11 Jul 2026 04:13:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:53:51 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz

I recently had to take a crash course in VBA.

It didn't make me feel dumb, but it did make me feel that *someone* is dumb… 😒

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sdf.org/users/argv_minus_one/statuses/116899317782004091https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.sdf.org/users/argv_minus_one/statuses/116899317782004091Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:53:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:44:39 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz As far as I'm concerned, If you never feel dumb, you're too stagnant and it's time for a change.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/shnhrrsn/statuses/116899281619303580https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/shnhrrsn/statuses/116899281619303580Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:44:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:37:21 GMT]]>@NuclearOatmeal @hal_pomeranz Although I haven’t done these to bootstrap a brand new language so far, a couple of smallish projects I did just for fun that would be good for this task:

1. Sudoku solver. This was a problem in an online puzzle series I did a while back and it’s pretty straightforward to do a somewhat naive but useful solver and then, as you describe, make it better as you understand more techniques.
2. Classical cipher codebreaking (the kind you can break with just stats; a surprisingly large number of the old-school pre-Enigma or so ciphers, even ones that are much harder to crack than newspaper-style cryptograms, are fun to figure out how to break that way).

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116899252919369615https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116899252919369615Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:37:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:36:47 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz (R)Amen!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mas.todon.rocks/users/chris/statuses/116899250694718465https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mas.todon.rocks/users/chris/statuses/116899250694718465Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:36:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:30:16 GMT]]>@NuclearOatmeal @hal_pomeranz Star charts. Bonus points for dragging in distance information and doing spiffy views of what things look like hundreds of light years from Earth.

(This is a bit more than a “just starting out with a language” problem, but this particular one helped to get me started in software development in the first place, and also to bootstrap an early and somewhat unfocused web dev career to something more substantial.)

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116899225017849807https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116899225017849807Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:30:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:25:32 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz

General curiosity here. If you do languages, do you have a go-to problem you know how to solve that you use to learn a new one?

I do Conway's Life. It's pretty simple, and then you can add all sorts of stupid as you learn more.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/NuclearOatmeal/statuses/116899206446547426https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/NuclearOatmeal/statuses/116899206446547426Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:25:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:18:30 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz you’re doing amazing!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://kolektiva.social/users/0x520/statuses/116899178772347787https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://kolektiva.social/users/0x520/statuses/116899178772347787Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:18:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I’ve been working with computers for five decades. on Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:06:25 GMT]]>@hal_pomeranz definitely needed to hear this today.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/Rajiv/statuses/116899131253568910https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/Rajiv/statuses/116899131253568910Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:06:25 GMT