*"Next time you're considering [offing yourself](suicide.md), go for it."* --genuine reaction of normal people in Xonotic to drummyfish advocating people should love each other
Drummyfish (also known as *tastyfish*, *drummy*, *drumy*, *smellyfish* and *i forcefeed my diarrhea to capitalism*) is a programmer, [anarchopacifist](anpac.md) and proponent of [free software/culture](free_software.md), who started [this wiki](lrs_wiki.md) and invented the kind of software it focuses on: [less retarded software](lrs.md) (LRS). Besides others he has written [Anarch](anarch.md), [small3dlib](small3dlib.md), [raycastlib](raycastlib.md), [smallchesslib](smallchesslib.md), [tinyphysicsengine](tinyphysicsengine.md), [SAF](saf.md) and [comun](comun.md). He has also been creating free culture art and otherwise contributing to free projects such as [OpenMW](openm.md); he's been contributing with [public domain](pd.md) art of all kind (2D, 3D, music, ...) and writings to [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md) (no longer cause ban), [Wikimedia Commons](wm_commons.md) (also banned now), [opengameart](oga.md), [libregamewiki](lgw.md), freesound and others. Drummyfish is insane/neuroretarded, suffering from anxiety/[depression](depression.md)/etcetc. (diagnosed [avoidant personality disorder](avpd.md)) and has more than once been called a [schizo](schizo.md), though psychiatrists didn't officially diagnose him with schizophrenia (yet). He sometimes [self harms](self_harm.md), both physically and socially. Due to spreading uncensored truth, helping and loving others and revealing corruption he is banned and censored on many places on the Internet, including [Wikipedia](wikipedia.md), Wikimedia Commons, [4chan](4chan.md), [GitLab](gitlab.md), many [subreddits](reddit.md), some [Xonotic](xonotic.md) and [Openarena](openarena.md) servers etc. He also has no [real life](irl.md) and is pretty retarded when it comes to leading projects or otherwise dealing with people or practical life. He is a [wizard](wizard.md).
**Drummyfish is the most physically disgusting bastard on [Earth](earth.md)**, no woman ever loved him, he is so ugly people get suicidal thoughts from seeing any part of him.
@ -39,6 +39,14 @@ The developers of Debian operating system have created their own guidelines (Deb
Free software was invented by [Richard Stallman](rms.md) in the 1980s. His free software movement inspired later movements such as the [free culture](free_culture.md) movement and the evil [open-source](open_source.md) movement.
## "Free" Software Alternatives, Pseudo Free Environments AKA What Freedom Really Is
**The "free software alternatives" question** is one that's constantly being discussed under [capitalism](capitalism.md): [corporations](corporation.md) try to forcefully keep users enslaved by proprietary software environments while free software proponents and users themselves want to free the users with "alternatives" made as free software. A very common mistake for a free software newcomer to make is to try to **"drop-in replace proprietary software with free software"**; a user used to proprietary software and its ways just wants the programs he's used to, just "without ads and subscriptions etc.". This doesn't work, or only to an extremely limited scale, because the whole proprietary world is made and DESIGNED from the ground up to allow user exploitation as much as possible, with e.g. building such thing like [consumerism](consumerism.md) right into the design of visual elements of the software etc., i.e. proprietary vs free software is not just about a legal [license](license.md), but whole philosophy of technology, asking things such as [why are we so obsessed over "updates"](update_culture.md) or [why are we freaking out about privacy](privacy.md). Trying to drop-in replace proprietary technology with 1 to 1 looking free software is like trying to replace whole capitalism with an "environment friendly capitalism" in which everything works the same except we have cars made of wood and skyscrapers made of recycled paper -- indeed, one sees that to get rid of the destructive nature of capitalism we really have to replace capitalism as such with all its basic concepts with something fundamentally different; and the situation is same with proprietary software.
For example most users nowadays want [GUI](gui.md) in all programs, which is how they've been nurtured by capitalism, however we have to realize that **a truly ([de facto](de_facto.md), not just legally) free software has to be [minimalist](minimalism.md)** and so most TRULY free software will mostly work only from the [command line](cli.md); a command line program is not necessarily harder or less comfortable to use (users are just nurtured to think so by capitalism), it is however inherently more free than a GUI one in all ways (not only by being more flexible, efficient, [portable](portable.md) and non-discrimination, but also simpler and therefore e.g. modifiable by more people). We have to realize that a **freedom respecting computing environment INHERENTLY LOOKS DIFFERENT from the proprietary one**, the matter is NOT only about the license (free license is just a necessary condition to allow freedom under capitalism, however it is not a sufficient condition for freedom). Some projects calling themselves "free" (or rather "[open source](open_source.md)") make the mistake (sometimes intentionally, exactly to e.g. more easily pull over more users from the proprietary land) of simply mimicking proprietary ways 1 to 1 -- see e.g. [Fediverse](fediverse.md) ("free" facebook/twitter/etc.), [Blender](blender.md) etc. -- these are technically/legally free, but not actually, de-facto free. While a short-sighted view tells us this wins more users from the proprietary platforms, in long term we see we are just rebuilding dystopias, only painted with brighter colors so as to make them look friendlier (and oftentimes this is exactly the aim of the authors). Transitioning to TRULY free platforms is harder -- **one has to relearn basic things** such as, as has been mentioned, working with command line rather than GUI -- but ultimately right as one really gets more freedom, however under capitalist pressure and nurturing it is a hard thing to do, requiring extorting a lot of energy to resist the pressures of society.
After some years dealing with software freedom (in serious ways, making money doesn't count) many -- including [us](lrs.md) -- realize that the "licensing" fuzz and legal questions, though important, are the surface, shallow views of freedom; one that also gets exploited by many (see e.g. [openwashing](openwashing.md)). Those who seek real freedom will sooner or later find themselves focusing on [minimalism](minimalism.md) and simplicity, e.g. [LRS](lrs.md), [suckless](suckless.md), [Bitreich](bitreich.md) etc. Going yet further, one starts to see the inherent interconnections of technology and whole society, and has to become interested also in social concepts, hence our proposal of [less retarded society](less_retarded_society.md).
@ -31,14 +31,14 @@ Examples from LRS point of view:
Here are some extremely basic steps to take regarding technology and the technological aspect of LRS:
- **Learn about the most essential topics and concepts**, mainly [free software](free_software.md), "[open-source](open_source.md)", [bloat](bloat.md), [kiss](kiss.md), [capitalism](capitalism.md), [capitalist_software](capitalist_software.md), [suckless](suckless.md), [LRS](lrs.md), [less retarded society](less_retarded_society.md), [anacho pacifism](anpac.md) and [type A/B fail](fail_ab.md). You will also need to open up your mind and re-learn some toxic concepts you've been taught by the system, e.g. [we do NOT fight anything](fight_culture.md), we do NOT create any [heroes](hero.md) or "leaders" (we follow ideas, not people), [work](work.md) is bad, older is better than "[modern](modern.md)" etc.
- **Install [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md)** operating system to free yourself from shit like [Windows](windows.md) and [Mac](mac.md) (you can also consider [BSD](bsd.md) but you're probably too noob for that). Do NOT try to switch to "Linux" right away if it's your first time, it's almost impossible, you want to just install "Linux" as [dual boot](dual_boot.md) (alongside your main OS) or on another computer (easier). This way you'll be using both operating systems, slowly getting more comfortable with "Linux" and eventually you'll find yourself uninstalling Windows altogether. You can also just try "Linux" in a [virtual machine](vm.md), from a live CD/flash drive or you can buy something with "Linux" preinstalled like [Raspberry Pi](raspberry.md). **Which "Linux" to install?** There are many options and as a noob you don't have to go hardcore right away, just install any [distro](distro.md) that [just werks](just_werks.md) (don't listen to people who tell you to install [Gentoo](gentoo.md) tho). Remember, perfect distro doesn't exist, all tech is shit nowadays, just choose something and go with it. You can try these:
- **Learn about the most essential topics and concepts**, mainly [free software](free_software.md), "[open-source](open_source.md)", [bloat](bloat.md), [minimalism](minimalism.md), [kiss](kiss.md), [capitalism](capitalism.md), [capitalist_software](capitalist_software.md), [suckless](suckless.md), [LRS](lrs.md), [less retarded society](less_retarded_society.md), [anacho pacifism](anpac.md), [type A/B fail](fail_ab.md) etc. You will also need to open up your mind and re-learn some toxic concepts you've been taught by the system, e.g. [we do NOT fight anything](fight_culture.md), we do NOT create any [heroes](hero.md), "leaders" or celebrities (we follow ideas, not people), admit [work](work.md) is shit, older is better than "[modern](modern.md)" etc.
- **Install [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md)** operating system to free yourself from shit like [Windows](windows.md) and [Mac](mac.md) (you can also consider [BSD](bsd.md) and similar free OSes but you're yet probably too noob for that at this point). Do NOT try to switch to "Linux" right away if it's your first time, it's almost impossible, you want to just install "Linux" as [dual boot](dual_boot.md) (alongside your main OS) or on another computer (easier). This way you'll be using both operating systems, slowly getting more comfortable with "Linux" and eventually you'll find yourself uninstalling Windows altogether. You can also just try "Linux" in a [virtual machine](vm.md), from a live CD/flash drive or you can buy something with "Linux" preinstalled like [Raspberry Pi](raspberry.md). **Which "Linux" to install?** There are many options and as a noob you don't have to go hardcore right away, just install any [distro](distro.md) that [just werks](just_werks.md) (don't listen to people who tell you to install [Gentoo](gentoo.md) tho). Remember, perfect distro doesn't exist, all tech is shit nowadays, just choose something and go with it. You can try these:
- [Devuan](devuan.md): Nice, [LRS](lrs.md) approved distro that respects your [freedom](free_software.md) that just works, is easy to install and is actually nice. Good for any skill level.
- [Debian](debian.md): Like Devuan but uses the evil [systemd](systemd.md) which doesn't have to bother you at this point. Try Debian if Devuan doesn't work for any reason.
- [Mint](mint.md): More noob, [bloated](bloat.md) and mainstream distro that only mildly cares about freedom, but is extremely easy and works almost everywhere. Try this if Debian didn't work for you.
- [Ubuntu](ubuntu.md): Kind of like Mint, try it if Mint didn't work.
- [Puppy](puppy.md) Linux: Tiny kind of a "toy" distro that uses very little resources.
- **Learn a bit of [command line](cli.md)** (Unix utils, [bash](bash.md) etc.). No need to become a hacker right away, just get familiar with this essential Unix tool.
- **Learn a bit of [command line](cli.md)** ([Unix](unix.md) utils, [bash](bash.md) etc.). No need to become a hacker right away, just get familiar with this essential Unix environment.
- **Free yourself technologically**, i.e. make yourself depend as little as possible on capitalist technology; this step if crucial, you can't really live well or achieve anything while being a slave. This includes firstly leaving proprietary platforms such as [Facebook](facebook.md), [Google](google.md)'s platforms such as [YouTube](youtube.md), [reddit](reddit.md) etc. Also stop being dependent on proprietary programs ([MS](microsoft.md) office, [photoshop](photoshop.md) etc.), and proprietary consumer devices such as a [smartphone](smartphone.md). Again, it's impossible to free yourself 100% immediately, go slowly and try to get more freedom even if you can't achieve 100% freedom. This means either stop using harmful software/services/devices and engaging in bad habits (social media etc.) or at least minimize their use, and/or use more freedom-friendly alternatives such as different [search engines](search_engine.md) (e.g. [searx](searx.md), ...), a [dumbphone](dumbphone.md) or at least [free](free_software.md) OS smartphone rather than capitalist [smartphone](smartphone.md), freedom friendly laptop (e.g. an old [thinkpad](thinkpad.md)) rather than iShit or consumerist gayming PC, start using **[FOSS](foss.md) programs**, e.g. [GIMP](gimp.md) instead of Photoshop, [LibreOffice](libreoffice.md) instead of MS Office etc, [invidious](invidious.md) or [Peertube](peertube.md) instead of [YouTube](youtube.md) etc. Remember, it is best if you can stop using something altogether, the second best thing is to stop being dependent on a single entity, try to use a decentralized and/or [suckless](suckless.md) [FOSS](foss.md) alternative but do not try to just mimic your old habits in the FOSS world, you have to learn new ways of computing (for example start using multiple search engines instead of relying on one, it's not good to just drop-in replace one search engine for another). Avoid falling to traps of shit like [distrohopping](distrohopping.md), this just enslaves you in a different way.
- If you want to program [LRS](lrs.md), **learn [C](c.md)** (see the [tutorial](c_tutorial.md)). Also learn a bit of [POSIX shell](posix_shell.md) and maybe some mainstream [scripting](script.md) language (can be even a bloated one like [Python](python.md)). Learn about [licensing](license.md) and [version control](vcs.md) ([git](git.md)). As you advance, start studying deeper topics such as [history](history.md) or [hacker culture](hacking.md) etc.
- Optionally make your own minimal [website](web.md) (or even a [gopherhole](gopher.md)) to help reshare ideas you like (static [HTML](html.md) site without [JavaScript](javascript.md)). This is very easy, and the site can be hosted for free e.g. on [git](git.md) hosting sites like Codeberg or GitLab. Get in touch with us.
@ -90,13 +90,14 @@ Now you have to upload this html file to the hosting server -- check out the det
This is a summary of some main guidelines on how an LRS supporter should behave in general so as to stay consistent with LRS philosophy, however it is important that this is shouldn't be taken as rules to be blindly followed -- the last thing we want is a religion of brainwashed NPCs who blindly follow orders. One has to understand why these principles are in place and even potentially modify them.
- If you want, **get in contact with like minded people**, for example [us](lrs.md) :) It's OK not to, not everyone is social, but it's nice to be part of a group where people understand each other, support each other, inspire each other, ... Even lurking helps many times. **Where to find such people?** Definitely not on mainstream platforms, they are mostly in the [underground](underground.md): as a tech minimalist search for "platforms" you would yourself use -- that's where you will likely find people like yourself. Good places to start are for example [gopher](gopher.md), [wiby](wiby.md), [suckless](suckless.md), [IRC](irc.md), [mailing lists](mailing_list.md), obscure online libre [games](game.md) etc. If you set up a website (or gopher hole) where you publish nice stuff, people will find you and contact you themselves. { I found many friends in [Xonotic](xonotic.md) and [OpenArena](openarena.md), as well as thanks to writings and programs I put on the internet. ~drummyfish }
- **Do NOT [fight](fight_culture.md)**, do NOT say you fight something. Fighting and rhetoric centered around "fighting something" is part of harmful [fight culture](fight_culture.md), most people don't even realize they take part in it. It is important to unlearn this. We do not want to defeat anyone, we want to convince by means of rationality, nonviolence and love. However note that what is unacceptable to do to a living being may be completely acceptable to do to non living object (for example destroying a corporation is OK, in fact it is very desirable). We often take actions that common people would call a "fight" (for example we may organize a strike), however it is important that we don't call it a fight -- a point of view is sometimes as important as the action itself as it will determine our future direction. Remember that [naming is important](name_is_important.md).
- **Do NOT [fight](fight_culture.md)**, do NOT say you fight something. Fighting and rhetoric centered around "fighting something" is part of harmful [fight culture](fight_culture.md), most people don't even realize they take part in it. It is important to unlearn this. We do not want to defeat anyone, we want to convince by means of rationality, nonviolence and love. However note that what is unacceptable to do to a living being may be completely acceptable to do to non living object (for example destroying a corporation is OK, in fact it is very desirable). We often take actions that common people would call a "fight" (for example we may organize a strike), however it is important that we don't call it a fight -- a point of view is sometimes as important as the action itself as it will determine our future direction. Remember that [naming is important](name_is_important.md).**Watch out for [A/B fails](fail_ab.md)**.
- **Do NOT worship or create [heroes](hero_culture.md), don't become one**. Watch out for [cult of personality](cult_of_personality.md). It is another common mistake to for example call [Richard Stallman](rms.md) a "hero of free software" and to even worship him as a celebrity. The concept of a hero is [harmful](harmful.md), rightist concept that is connected to war mentality, it goes against [anarchist](anarchism.md) principles, it creates social hierarchy and given some people a power to deceive. People are imperfect and make mistake -- only ideas can be perfect. Respect people but don't make anyone your moral compass, you should rather subscribe to specific ideas, i.e. rather than worshipping Stallman subscribe to and promote his idea of [free software](free_software.md).
- **CREATE, Do NOT waste your life on bullshit, do NOT get too obsessed with tools and hopping** such as [distrohopping](distrohopping.md), [githopping](githopping.md) [audiophilia](audiophilia.md), hardware consumerism, 100% minimalist perfectionism etc. Remember, the goal of your life is to create something new and better; too many people just get stuck doing nothing but switch distros, rant about which editor is best, making sure their OS has zero bloat and zero proprietary code etc. This is completely useless, your life is completely wasted. Dedicate time to creating art that will last, e.g. programming [LRS](lrs.md) (creating source code text) or making free cultural art -- it doesn't matter whether you create it with Ubuntu or Gentoo.
- **Lead an example**, this is the best way to spread our values, however be also extremely careful not to become a worshipped [authority](hero_culture.md). Know the difference between a humble intellectual authority and an authoritative self-centered celebrity who uses his fame for deception. The more famous you are, the more humble you should become.
- **Be [loving](love.md), even towards opposition** -- remember: hate and revenge towards people perpetuates the endless circle. [Love](love.md) leads to more love, understanding, good deeds, friendship, happiness, collaboration and all the other positive things. Do not confuse love with [political correctness](political_correctness.md). You may get angry or frustrated, just don't get violent against, rather try to break something, write your anger out, play some video game etc.
- **Try to do [selfless](selflessness.md) things** -- TRULY selfless ones. Help those in need without expecting any kind of repay, do not even seek attention or gratitude for it, only your good feeling. Create selfless art, whatever it is you enjoy doing -- computer programs, 3D models, music, videos, ... put them in the [public domain](public_domain.md) and let others enjoy them :) Try to **make doing good things a habit** -- some people smoke, drink, overeat and do other kinds of things harmful to themselves and their environment as means for relieving stress. If you exploit this natural human tendency and rather develop GOOD habits, such as writing free software or helping charities as a means of relaxing and relieving stress, you have won at life; doing good and feeling good will be natural and effortless. **The thing you dedicate your life to should be the thing you love, not the thing that earns you money** or benefits you in similar ways -- try to maximize doing what you love (which may and probably should be more than one thing) and also **try to love doing what is good** so that you can do it a lot. **If you love something, never do it for money**; then it becomes business and as we know, business spoils everything.
- **Protest in non-violent ways** -- this doesn't mean you should be passive; you should be exposing the truth, propaganda, corruption, boycotting corporations and state, promoting your values and expressing disagreement with certain ideas, but do not aim for destruction of those who stand in opposition -- if you're attacked, it is best if you do not fight back; not only is this the morally ideal thing to do, it also sends a very powerful message and makes the aggressor himself think.
- **Try to be so that if everyone was like that, the society would be good (in agreement with [LRS](less_retarded_society.md))** -- this is a good general [rule of thumb](rule_of_thumb.md) (and as such may also possibly fail sometimes, be careful) that can help you make some difficult decisions. DO NOT confuse this advice with the ["do unto others as you would have them do unto you"](do_unto_others.md) advice, that is indeed a [shitty](shit.md) one, supposing everyone likes the same things, i.e. for example a man who enjoys being [raped](rape.md) is advised here to go and rape others -- that's of course bad.
- **Do NOT support [pseudoleft](pseudoleft.md) ([LGBT](lgbt.md), [feminism](feminism.md), [Antifa](antifa.md), [soyence](soyence.md) ...)**, don't become [type A fail](fail_ab.md). Of course you should equally reject [rightism](right.md), but that goes without saying.
- **Do NOT engage in [political correctness](political_correctness.md)**. Remember that staying silent often means supporting status quo, so the more deceit you see in society, the more you should try to not stay silent and the more you should try to tell the truth.
- **[Free](freedom.md) yourself from the system** (and generally from as many things as possible) -- similarly to how you free yourself technologically, free yourself also socially, live frugally and minimize your expenses. Stop consuming, stop living in luxury, stop spending money for shit (gyms, sports, clothes, car, streaming services, games, cigarettes, ...), use free things that people throw away and enjoy hobbies that are cheap (programming, reading books, going for walks, playing chess, collecting [rocks](rock.md), ...). **Stop watching news** (it's just brainwashing and distraction, what's really important will get to you anyway), stop engaging in fashion, stop talking to retards and watching tiktok manipulators. You need very little to live, you don't even need internet connection; with good computing you can hack offline and only connect to the internet once in a while on some public wifi to download emails and upload your programs. **Stop using [cellphone](phone.md)** (if you need it e.g. for banking, just use it for banking and don't carry it around with you, don't make it something you need with you). Make yourself self sufficient, prepare for the [collapse](collapase.md). If you can live somewhere in the woods and would enjoy it, go for it.
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Working for [free software](free_software.md) organizations such as the [FSF](fs
Considering all things mentioned above, here are some concrete things of making money on LRS. Keep in mind that a lot of services (PayPal, Patreon etc.) listed here may possibly be [proprietary](proprietary.md) and unethical, so always check them out and consider free alternatives such as [Liberapay](liberapay.md). The methods are following:
- **[donations](donation.md)**: You may ask for donations e.g. on your website or Patreon (people often ask for [cryptocurrencies](crypto.md) or traditional money via services like [Liberapay](liberapay.md), PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee). For significant earnings you need to be somewhat popular because people donate extremely rarely, but if your work is good, there sometimes appears a generous donor who sends you a lot of money ({Happened to me a few times. I hereby thank all those kind people <3~drummyfish}).Itcanhelpifyoucreate"content"suchasprogrammingvideosalongsideyourprojecttogetsome"following",butitmayalsodistractyouandtakesomeofyourenergy.Peoplelike [Luke Smith](luke_smith.md) make quitesomebigmoneylikethis.Alotof [free culture](free_culture.md) artistsaresuccessfulincreatingfreeartthisway.
- **[donations](donation.md)**: You may ask for donations e.g. on your website or Patreon (people often ask for [cryptocurrencies](crypto.md) or traditional money via services like [Liberapay](liberapay.md), PayPal or Buy Me a Coffee). For significant earnings you need to be somewhat popular because people donate extremely rarely, but if your work is good, there sometimes appears a generous donor who sends you a lot of money ({Happened to me a few times. I hereby thank all those kind people <3~drummyfish}).Itcanhelpifyoucreate"content"suchasprogrammingvideosalongsideyourprojecttogetsome"following",butitmayalsodistractyouandtakesomeofyourenergy.Peoplelike [Luke Smith](luke_smith.md) seem tomake quitesomebigmoneylikethis.Alotof [free culture](free_culture.md) artistsaresuccessfulincreatingfreeartthisway, evencompletely [public domain](public_domain.md),forexampleKenney(thenumberonecreatorat [opengameart](oga.md)).
- **[crowd funding](crowd_funding.md)**: A method similar to donations but a little more "encouraging" for the donors. You set a financial goal and if enough people donate to reach that goal, you get the money and create the project. Patreon and Kickstarter are typically used for this.
- **[pay what you want](pay_what_you_want.md)**: Here you create the work and then offer a download with optional payment, typically with some suggested price. People who can't afford to pay don't have to. This method has the advantage of not putting you under deadline pressures like the crowd funding method. Sites like [itch.io](https://itch.io/) are friendly to this option.
- **selling physical products and [merchandise](merch.md)** ("merch"): This method makes use of the fact that selling physical items is considered less (even though not completely!) unethical, unlike selling copies of information. So you can e.g. create a [free](free_software.md) video [game](game.md) and then sell T-shirts or coffee mugs with that video game's themes. In the past some [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md) distros used to sell their systems on nice "officials" CDs, but nowadays CDs are kind of dead. [Open consoles](open_console.md) kind of do this as well, they create [FOSS](foss.md) games and tools and then sell hardware that runs these games.
@ -12,7 +12,12 @@ At high level programming becomes [spiritual](spirituality.md). Check out e.g. [
*See also [programming tips](programming_tips.md).*
The key thing to becoming a programmer is learning a [programming language](programming_language.md) very well (and learning many of them), however this is not enough (it's only enough for becoming a coding monkey), you additionally have to have a wider knowledge such as general knowledge of computers ([electronics](electronics.md), [hardware](hardware.md), theory or computation, [networks](networking.md), ...), tech [history](history.md) and culture ([free software](free_software.md), [hacker cutlure](hacking.md), [free culture](free_culture.md), ...), [math](math.md) and [science](science.md) in general, possibly even society, philosophy etc. Programming is not an isolated topic (only coding is), a programmer has to see the big picture and have a number of other big brain interests such as [chess](chess.md), voting systems, linguistics, physics, music etc. Remember, becoming a good programmer takes a whole life, sometimes even longer.
At first you have to learn two basic rules that have to be constantly on your mind:
1. **You cannot be a good programmer if you're not good at [math](math.md)** -- real programming is pure math.
2. **[minimalism](minimalism.md) is the most important concept in programming.** If you don't like, support or understand minimalism, don't even think of becoming a programmer.
OK, now the key thing to becoming a programmer is learning a [programming language](programming_language.md) very well (and learning many of them), however this is not enough (it's only enough for becoming a coding monkey), you additionally have to have a wider knowledge such as general knowledge of computers ([electronics](electronics.md), [hardware](hardware.md), theory or computation, [networks](networking.md), ...), tech [history](history.md) and culture ([free software](free_software.md), [hacker cutlure](hacking.md), [free culture](free_culture.md), ...), [math](math.md) and [science](science.md) in general, possibly even society, philosophy etc. Programming is not an isolated topic (only coding is), a programmer has to see the big picture and have a number of other big brain interests such as [chess](chess.md), voting systems, linguistics, physics, music etc. Remember, becoming a good programmer takes a whole life, sometimes even longer.
**Can you become a good programmer when you're old?** Well, as with everything to become a SERIOUSLY good programmer you should have probably started before the age of 20, the majority of the legend programmers started before 10, it's just like with sports or becoming an excellent musician. But with enough enthusiasm and endurance you can become a pretty good programmer at any age, just like you can learn to play an instrument or run marathon basically at any age, it will just take longer and a lot of energy. You don't even have to aim to become very good, becoming just average is enough to write simple gaymes and have a bit of fun in life :) Just don't try to learn programming because it seems cool, because you want to look like movie haxor, gain followers on youtube or because you need a job -- if you're not having genuine fun just thinking before sleep about how to swap two variables without using a temporary variable, programming is probably not for you. **Can you become a good programmer if you're black or [woman](woman.md)?** No. :D Ok, maybe you can, but all the above applies, don't do it for politics or money or followers -- if you become a seriously based programmer (from [LRS](lrs.md) point of view) of unlikely minority, we'll be more than happy to put an apology here, in ALL CAPS and bold letters :) Hopefully this will inspire someone...
@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ As the time marched on web used to become more and more [shit](shit.md), as is t
Mainstream web is quite literally unusable nowadays. { 2023 update: whole web is now behind [cuckflare](cloudfare.md) plus [secure HTTPS safety privacy antipedophile science encrypted privacy antiterrorist democratic safety privacy security expert antiracist sandboxed protection](https.md) and therefore literally can't be used. Also Google has been absolutely destroyed by the [LLM](llm.md) AIs now. ~drummyfish } What people searched for on the web they now search on on a handful of platforms like Facebook and YouTube (often not even using a web browser but rather a mobile "[app](app.md)"); if you try to "google" something, what you get is just a list of unusable sites written by [AIs](ai.md) that load for several minutes (unless you have the latest 1024 TB RAM beast) and won't let you read beyond the first paragraph without registration. These sites are uplifted by [SEO](seo.md) for pure commercial reasons, they contain no useful information, just ads. Useful sites are buried under several millions of unusable results or downright censored for political reasons (e.g. using some forbidden word). Thankfully you can still try to browse the [smol web](smol_internet.md) with search engines such as [wiby](wiby.md), but still that only gives a glimpse of what the good old web used to be.
{ More of web 2023 experience: if you want to Google something as simple as "HTML ampersand", just to get the HTML entity 5 character code, you basically get referred to a site that's 200 MB big, loads for about 1 minute, has 50 sections and subsections like "Who This Tutorial on Copypasting 5 Character is for", "What You Will Learn in This Tutorial", "Time Required for Reading This Tutorial" (which without these sections would be like 3 seconds), "Introduction: History of HTML" (starting with Stone Age) etc. There are of course about 7 video ads between each section and the next. Then finally there is the `&` code you can copy paste, burried in level 12 subsection ("HTML Code" -> "History of Programming Since Napoleon Bonaparte" -> "How Ada Lovelace Invented Computer Science" -> "How Tim Berners-Lee Stole The Idea For Web from His Wife" -> "Why Women Only Crews For Next Space Mission are a Good Idea" -> "How This All Finally Gets Us to HTML Amp Entity" -> ...). Then of course there follow about 600 more sections like "Methodology Used to Create This Copypasting Tutorial" etcetc. until "Conclusion: What We Have Learned about the HTML Amp Entity and History of Feminism"; but at least you don't have to scroll through that; anyway at this point you are already suicidal and don't even want to write your HTML anymore. ~drummyfish }
{ More of web 2023 experience: if you want to Google something as simple as "HTML ampersand", just to get the HTML entity 5 character code, you basically get referred to a site that's 200 MB big, loads for about 1 minute (after you pass 10 checks for not being a robot), has 50 sections and subsections like "Who This Tutorial on Copypasting 5 Character is for", "What You Will Learn in This Tutorial", "Time Required for Reading This Tutorial" (which without these sections would be like 3 seconds), "Introduction: History of HTML" (starting with Stone Age) etc. There are of course about 7 video ads between each section and the next. Then finally there is the `&` code you can copy paste, burried in level 12 subsection ("HTML Code" -> "History of Programming Since Napoleon Bonaparte" -> "How Ada Lovelace Invented Computer Science" -> "How Tim Berners-Lee Stole The Idea For Web from His Wife" -> "Why Women Only Crews For Next Space Mission are a Good Idea" -> "How This All Finally Gets Us to HTML Amp Entity" -> ...). Then of course there follow about 600 more sections like "Methodology Used to Create This Copypasting Tutorial" etcetc. until "Conclusion: What We Have Learned about the HTML Amp Entity and History of Feminism"; but at least you don't have to scroll through that; anyway at this point you are already suicidal and don't even want to write your HTML anymore. ~drummyfish }
