Coding without Google
Programming is so much more fun and awesome now. Everyone has a computer, and has their computer on them 24 hours a day. Whether it's a website or a mobile app, you're able to immediately get things in the hands of your "normal" friends and see what they think.The development side of things are also better. All of these open-sourced, internet-networked tools/libraries/languages allow you to build really powerful stuff really quickly. Yes, there is a huge quality and maintenance problem, with lots of people writing libraries they instantly abandon, but I think this just forces you to read lots of source code and become a better programmer.Build more powerful stuff, faster, and get it in the hands of more people, faster. What a time to be a programmer. The article does a good job of noting the problem of distraction, but I think that has always been an issue, and why we have always seen anti-social traits among lots of successful developers.  Tuning out the allure of being young and having mindless fun in the 90s to focus on code is no different from tuning out the allure of being young and having mindless fun today. As for older people, well, it's always been a challenge to be super-focused and dedicate time to learning new things while dealing with household/adult responsibilities.This is a very special moment as a developer. It is like being in the business of rock 'n roll in the era in which radio and television took off, which made it possible to create music that ended up broadcast around the world within weeks. If you can stay true to the roots of the code, and avoid all of the weird get-rich-quick types that have entered the scene, you can have a lot of fun right now.The past wasn't any better, and the future can't be predicted. The time is now.