Things got a lot more complex these days. When I was a kid I was able to hold in my mind how DOS works, how x86 works and was able to learn a bit of C and assembler to do about anything. Hack software, build my own, have fun.
Doing small games was pretty easy if you knew some graphic modes and had some undocumented source codes for drivers for various 2D graphics cards. Trying now to learn modern DirectX, Vulkan, shaders and graphics stacks is more complex.
Nobody can now hold in their heads all the important details of how operating systems work, how networks work, how graphics woks, how web apps work, how mobile apps work, how backend works, how desktop apps work, how ML and AI works.
You have to specialize in something. Get an Arduino and learn how to flip a led. Right click a popular website, paste the source code in Notepad and try to modify it.
It's not less fun tinkering, but it's going to be specialized fun if you ever want to learn something and get good at it.
Things got a lot more complex these days. When I was a kid I was able to hold in my mind how DOS works, how x86 works and was able to learn a bit of C and assembler to do about anything. Hack software, build my own, have fun.
Doing small games was pretty easy if you knew some graphic modes and had some undocumented source codes for drivers for various 2D graphics cards. Trying now to learn modern DirectX, Vulkan, shaders and graphics stacks is more complex.
Nobody can now hold in their heads all the important details of how operating systems work, how networks work, how graphics woks, how web apps work, how mobile apps work, how backend works, how desktop apps work, how ML and AI works.
You have to specialize in something. Get an Arduino and learn how to flip a led. Right click a popular website, paste the source code in Notepad and try to modify it.
It's not less fun tinkering, but it's going to be specialized fun if you ever want to learn something and get good at it.