I didn't intend to brag, because I'm not a particularly good programmer. I only mean that, once you've taken the "Compilers" and "Operating Systems" classes in

I didn't intend to brag, because I'm not a particularly good programmer. I only mean that, once you've taken the "Compilers" and "Operating Systems" classes in college, there's really no mystery left. You are absolutely correct that it would take me a long time to do any of it. (I'm also bad at estimating how long things take, BTW!) Then again, for most big polished software I use, I don't use most of its features ever. There may be icebergs, but chances are most of them are in code that I wouldn't write in the first place, if I was only writing for myself.