The Forgotten Performance King

Four guys staring silently at engine parts is exactly what happens when debugging assembly code. You squint at incomprehensible MOV, JMP, and ADD instructions, desperately hoping someone notices the register that's off by one bit. It's like trying to read a novel where every letter has been replaced with hieroglyphics, and the table of contents is written in hex. The only difference is that car engines occasionally make sense.

The left side shows all the ridiculous string types C++ developers have to deal with: str , String , OsStr , OsString , Path , PathBuf , Vec<u8> , &u8 , CString , CStr ... while the right side shows the elegant simplicity of just using char[] . It's like bringing a Swiss Army knife to a gunfight when all you needed was a bullet. The string handling complexity in modern languages vs. the old-school C approach is programming's version of "why use many word when few word do trick?"

Left side: Cute, friendly mascots representing normal programming languages. Right side: C++ gets a terrifying rat creature and whatever that nightmare fuel at the bottom is. Pretty much sums up the C++ experience. Other languages hold your hand. C++ hands you a grenade with the pin already pulled and says "good luck with memory management."

Oh. My. GOD. The ABSOLUTE ROYALTY that is a C++ developer after shaving off a microscopic 100 nanoseconds from their code! 👑 They're strutting around like they're literal ARISTOCRACY while everyone else must bow to their optimization genius. Never mind that a nanosecond is one BILLIONTH of a second and no human could possibly perceive this difference. But darling, in the C++ world, those 100 nanoseconds might as well be an ETERNITY! The developer has now earned the right to look down upon the peasants who dare use interpreted languages. *dramatic hair flip*

OH. MY. GOD. The absolute AUDACITY of this person claiming they "use C++ in JavaScript" only to reveal they're just using the increment operator in a for loop! 😱 The sheer DRAMA when they're challenged to "SHOW ME" and they proudly display that pathetic c++ in their loop like it's some groundbreaking achievement! Honey, that's not C++ programming, that's just the increment operator that exists in LITERALLY EVERY C-STYLE LANGUAGE EVER CREATED! 💅 And the reaction? PRICELESS! The absolute howling laughter is what happens when you make such a ridiculous claim in front of actual developers. It's like saying you speak French because you can say "oui oui" while eating a croissant! I CANNOT with these people! 🤦‍♀️

Surviving data structures feels like a victory until you realize it's just the warm-up act. The real bosses are waiting: algorithms that hit like a truck, compilers that'll make you question your career choices, and operating systems lurking in the shadows like the final boss you're not remotely prepared for. Every CS student thinks they've conquered the mountain after their first linked list, only to discover they're still in the tutorial level. The industry veterans just watch with coffee in hand, knowing exactly how this story ends.