Honestly, I hate the way these articles are framed: "X things every programmer should [read|try|learn]". I've certainly seen a list of 1000 books everyone should read. I hate the way these are framed because you'd spend your entire life doing all of them so it's clearly not practical.
Can we step away from the hyperbole here and just start saying (in this case) "Interesting project ideas" or somesuch?
This of course leads to people piping up their own "must dos" like "write a compiler" (huge undertaking).
Interestingly I see a comment here like "do something with actual customers" and the replies are interesting, essentially dismissing this as a business rather than technical problem.
I find this interesting because software exists to solve problems for people so this is probably the most useful advice I've seen. The ability to identify a pain point and use software to solve it is arguably the most useful ability a software engineer can have.
You will of course learn things by writing a compiler or . text editor or a ray tracer and if scratches an itch for you, by all means go for it.
The author thinks these are valuable challenges every programmer should try. Not must, should. It's just an opinion. If you don't agree with it, then don't do the challenges. Why does it cause you to write a 200 word rant?
Why did cletus' post cause you to write a 40 word rant?
I thought it was a valid point. 1000 books I should read? If I devoted all my free time, for the rest of my life, I might make it. But that leaves me exactly zero time left for the next person who's got some fine-sounding "should" for me, or the next, or the one after that. It's all my time for the rest of my life - for one person's "should".
I don't think it changes the problem to say "should" instead of "must". It's just an opinion. It doesn't create any more of a "should" for me than it does of a "must".
I second this, when such advice comes from people who have some authority, it can be very confusing to a lot of young people entering the field. It could even be disheartening and really demotivating for some, who otherwise might have exceptional logicial/design/frontend/database/statistics/ML... skills.
Can we step away from the hyperbole here and just start saying (in this case) "Interesting project ideas" or somesuch?
This of course leads to people piping up their own "must dos" like "write a compiler" (huge undertaking).
Interestingly I see a comment here like "do something with actual customers" and the replies are interesting, essentially dismissing this as a business rather than technical problem.
I find this interesting because software exists to solve problems for people so this is probably the most useful advice I've seen. The ability to identify a pain point and use software to solve it is arguably the most useful ability a software engineer can have.
You will of course learn things by writing a compiler or . text editor or a ray tracer and if scratches an itch for you, by all means go for it.