Fierce competition for everything.

There is something which is always seems familia and obvious – just open a food stall or a restaurant and all the problems will be solved.

What we usually want is sort of financial independence, steady and stable income and being an owner of a business.

In relity, however, the market is highly saturated and to make any money (or to break even!) in it requires a full-day involvement and a constant effort.

Nowadays the situation is the same with the market of coding (which is not the same as carefully crafted, principle-guided programming).

Coding is a cheap junk-food economy. It is a low-effort, repetitive mechanical activity, quite similar to cooking of a low quality crap.

Programming, however, is as hard as teaching mathematics properly, not like in a typical school, which is, again, a low-effort activity.

You are “getting paid” only (and only) when your student actually succeeded in applying the knowledge. And that student is you.

Real, non-bullshit programming is not just applied mathematics, it is also applied problem-solving and the art of making proper abstractions.

Unlike mathematicians, however, we, good programmers, always have to consider representations of the data structures and the actual implementations of data-types the algorithms.

This is requires all the knowledge they used to teach in the best technical schools, like MIT. Good programming is more than mathematics.

But some people are actually making money by cooking food – they run Michelin-stared restaurants – a state-of-the art artisan cooking.

Notice that they have almost the same ingredients (of a highest quality) and the same tools and common techniques, but the result is qualitatively different.

The same principles are applicable for programming. It is possible to write “five-star” programs which are small, correct and nearly optimal.

Another good analogy is writing of a fiction (books). All you need is just a pen, paper and lots of time (and money to pay the bills). Very few people actually succeed.

No, you won’t be able to write a web-browser or a 3D game (this requires a whole organization of many people) but you can do something better.

You could write small programs (by understanding and using other people’s code and APIs) which do useful things for you, including transferring and/or “trading” digital assets or any other form of modern finance.

The mantra here is “automation”, which means using computer programs such that they perform the mechanical tasks while you are free (to think).

This is the ultimate goal – you create “helpers” for yourself and delegate mundane but necessary tasks to them, and this is how you make money.

So, basically, you have to become a top performer in a competitive spots, like Boxing, and win (or at least qualify to participate in) some whole World-championships Yes, it is that kind of effort.

Or you can do webshit on an online sweat-shop, like WeWork for a $5 per day – the same 12 hours of effort as in making a junk-food.

The good part is that the principle-guided knowledge and the mastery of classic, proper tools of the trade will never be wasted. Even the ability of reading and writing some better English (which clarity, conciseness and correctness – no bullshit) will pay back quickly.

In reality, however, if you are actually good, you will be banned on public social media (for expression unpopular and controversial options), your posts will be flagged and deleted (for refusing to comply to the mediocrity) and you will end up, just like these “hackers” in popular movies, alone but self-sufficient and powerful.

The first thing to actually realize (by having an actual experience, instead of merely reading and believing) is that almost everything people say and do very confidently is bullshit and low-effort crap, and the real art is extremely rare, it requires time, effort and mastery.

This is worth trying.

C++, Java PHP, Javascript, Ethereum and Solidity are actually among the worst things humans ever made. They all are incompetent, low-effort crap.