The Overengineering Champion

Content THE C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE pointer initialization 102, 138 pointer, null 102, 198 pointer subtraction 103, 138, 198 pointer to function 118, 147, 201 pointer to structure 136 pointer, void 93, 103, 120, 199 pointer vs. array 97, 99-100, 104. 113 pointer-integer conversion 198-199, 205 pointers and subscripts 97, 99, 217 pointers, array of 107 pointers, operations permitted on 103 Polish notation 74 pop function 77 portability 3, 37, 43, 49, 147, 151, 153, 185 position of braces 10 postfix and - - 46, 105 pow library function 24, 251 power function 25, 27 pragma 233 precedence of operators 17, 52, 95, 131-132, 199 prefix and - - 46, 106 preprocessor, macro 88, 228-233 preprocessor name, FILE 254 preprocessor name, LINE 254 preprocessor names, predefined 233 preprocessor operator, 90, 230 preprocessor operator 90. 230 INDEX 269 ptrdifft type name 103, 147, 206 push function 77 pushback, input 78 put library function 161, 247 put macro 176 putchar library function 15, 152, 161, 247 puts library function 164, 247 qsort function 87, 110, 120 qsort library function 253 qualifier, type 208, 211 quicksort 87, 110 quote character, 19, 37-38, 193 quote character, " 8, 20, 38, 194 r carriage return character 38, 193 raise library function 255 rand function 46 rand library function 252 RAND MAX 252 read system call 170 readdir function 184 readlines function 109 realloc library function 252 recursion 86, 139, 141, 182, 202, 269 recursive-descent parser 123

Let's be honest—your CS degree taught you data structures and algorithms, but your actual programming career is just professional Googling with extra steps. Companies pretend they want you to memorize binary tree inversions, but what they really need is someone who can find that obscure Stack Overflow answer in record time. The real 10x developers aren't the ones who know everything; they're the ones who can craft the perfect search query to fix production at 3 AM. Maybe instead of whiteboard coding, interviews should just measure your Google-fu and how quickly you can find that one line fix for that dependency hell you're in.

Ah, the beautiful irony of game development priorities. Summoning a lava demon from the depths of hell? "Yeah, we'll just use the particle system and some shaders, no biggie." But adding a simple scarf that doesn't clip through the character model? That's when developers start questioning their career choices. The truth is that seemingly simple features often hide nightmarish complexity. That scarf needs physics, collision detection, and fabric simulation that won't melt your GPU. Meanwhile, the flashy demon just needs to look cool for 5 seconds before disappearing. After 15 years in the industry, I've learned that estimating difficulty based on how impressive something looks is a rookie mistake. The most mundane features will be the ones that break your spirit.

Content When the code finally works and someone asks what you did different

Content What motivated you to study computer science? Money

The eternal battle between quality and deadlines! First, your conscience gently whispers about your terrible code. Then it screams profanities demanding you delete that monstrosity. Finally, your deadline-panic-mode kicks in and tells your conscience to shut up because shipping anything is better than shipping nothing. The duality of every developer's mind perfectly captured in this existential crisis - write beautiful code or actually finish the project on time? Spoiler alert: we always choose the deadline and live with the technical debt shame spiral later.