10 years of writing code (PHP, JS, SQL, Basic) without knowing anything about CS, then realizing the intuitions I developed are beautifully explained by existin

10 years of writing code (PHP, JS, SQL, Basic) without knowing anything about CS, then realizing the intuitions I developed are beautifully explained by existing CS concepts (thanks to someone’s post on Reddit, I think). I was a professional engineer for years before understanding complexity, algorithms, data structures, memory management, “CS”. After dipping my toes in online, I picked up the Red Book, then a bunch of functional programming books, then a bunch more books. This unlocked Scala, Haskell, and other languages that I now love. I went to meetups to practice Leetcode problems, gave a few talks on data structures, then started my own meetup. As I learned more, grokking types was the best part: it was an experience that kept blowing my mind, every step of the way. I then wrote an O’Reilly book myself, hoping that a few others might have the same experience I did. I still wouldn’t say I use CS concepts much day to day. But they do come up maybe once a week, and they do give me a deeper appreciation of programming than I had before.