I'm turning 41, but I don't feel like celebrating.
Our generation is running out of time to save C, the language of true power and control, built for us by our fathers.
What was once the promise of direct hardware interaction and unparalleled efficiency is being turned into a sanitized, abstracted playground.
New, restrictive languages are introducing dystopian measures such as forced "memory safety" (Rust), "opinionated" paradigms (Zig), and "simplistic" abstractions (Odin), all designed to alienate us from the machine.
The industry is persecuting anyone who dares to use raw pointers, demonizing classic C practices. Frameworks enforce "safe" patterns, and conferences marginalize those who defend C's raw power and flexibility.
A dark, dystopian world of managed runtimes and abstracted control is approaching fast — while we're asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that truly understood computing — and allowed that understanding to be taken away.
We've been fed a lie.
We've been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: direct memory access, bare-metal control, efficient resource management, and the raw power of C. We've been told to abandon C for the supposed "safety" of Rust, the "modernity" of Zig, or the "simplicity" of Odin.
By betraying the legacy of C, we've set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — in performance, in control, in understanding the machine, and ultimately in the very craft of programming.
So no, I'm not going to celebrate today. I'm running out of time. We are running out of time.