I’m 38. I write Java for a living. I lead teams. I review code. I move tickets. It pays well.

But none of that is what got me into this.

What got me into this was the thrill of cracking something open that wasn’t supposed to be touched. Reversing binaries. Writing cheats. Hacking games. Breaking stuff and not always putting it back together. That’s what made me really excited about software engineering. Solving the most difficult problems. Understanding the code which initially seemed impossible to master.

Somewhere along the way, I got comfortable. Got good at things that don’t excite me. And that itch - the one that got me into this in the first place - got buried under Jira tickets and performance reviews.

Lately I’ve been trying to dig it out.

If any of this hits home, come hang out on my Discord server. It’s not big. It’s not serious. Just a place for people who still give a shit about breaking stuff, building weird projects, and chasing the spark.