If Not Friend Then Why Friend Shaped

The endless cycle of programmer self-loathing continues! At 15, you're a Java hotshot thinking you're God's gift to computing. By 20, you've "evolved" to Python while cringing at your Java days. Then at 30, you're wielding C++ and Rust, looking back at your Python self with pure embarrassment. And the cycle continues... Future you is already facepalming at current you's tech choices. It's like each programming language is just another awkward yearbook photo waiting to happen.

Kotlin devs: "Our methods are fun !" *polite smile* Rust devs: "Hold my borrow checker. Our methods are fn ." *unhinged grin* The Rust community really looked at Kotlin's wholesome fun keyword and said "yeah but what if we made it shorter and more cryptic?" Peak systems programming energy right there. Nothing says "I enjoy pain" quite like preferring fn over fun . Both languages are great, but only one of them makes you feel like you're speedrunning carpal tunnel syndrome while fighting the compiler for sport.

The senior developer generation humoring the Gen Z developers who won't stop evangelizing about Rust and Go. "Yes dear, memory safety is revolutionary. No, we don't need to rewrite our entire codebase that's been running fine for 15 years." Meanwhile, the production server running on a 2005 PHP script held together with duct tape and prayers continues to outperform everything else.

Ah, the eternal C++ dilemma visualized as a horror movie choice! Standing at the crossroads of despair, our poor developer faces two equally terrifying paths: modernize that ancient codebase to C++23 (where templates will still haunt your dreams) or rewrite everything in Rust (and spend the next six months fighting with the borrow checker). Meanwhile, the legacy C++ codebase sits there, held together by duct tape and Stack Overflow answers from 2008. It's like choosing between getting punched in the face or kicked in the shins. No wonder C++ developers have that thousand-yard stare during code reviews.

The modern tech stack visualized as the world's most precarious Jenga tower! At the very bottom, we have "ELECTRICITY" holding up literally everything - because let's face it, without it we're all just cavemen with MacBooks. The foundation includes Linus Torvalds, IBM, TSMC, and "K&R" (Kernighan and Ritchie, the C language creators) - you know, just the people who INVENTED MODERN COMPUTING, no big deal. Above them, C developers writing dynamic arrays because apparently we still haven't solved that problem after 50 years. Then we've got AWS, libcURL, and the Linux Foundation supporting everything while "unpaid open-source developers" hold up critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, Rust devs are off in their own rocket doing "their thing" while that one C++ project based on "undefined behavior" somehow keeps things running. The middle is pure chaos - web devs "sabotaging themselves" with an ever-growing tower of frameworks, a random Angry Bird labeled "whatever Microsoft is doing," and the cherry on top? A literal cloud labeled "lore accurate cloud server." And somehow this Frankenstein's monster powers everything from nuclear plants to "cookies for fish." The future is now, and it's terrifying!

The top panel shows the Rust experience: find a library on crates.io, run one command, import it, and you're done. The stick figure even has their arms outstretched in celebration. Meanwhile, C++ is depicted as the ninth circle of dependency hell. Finding libraries across random websites, manually downloading tar files, and engaging in ritual combat with CMake until your build inevitably fails. The stick figures are literally hanging themselves in despair. And this is why some of us drink heavily before attempting to add external libraries to C++ projects.