Ask HN: Did early 80s home computers mislead you about what is important?

- The "early 80s home computers" refers to machines like the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, and BBC Micro — affordable personal computers that required users to program in BASIC or even Assembly just to get them to do anything useful. The questioner is reflecting on whether that era's emphasis on low-level tinkering (writing code, managing memory, understanding hardware) conditioned a generation to equate "computing" with "implementation craftsmanship," possibly at the expense of higher-level thinking about problems, design, or abstract ideas.<br> - This is a recurring cultural tension in tech: the "builder vs. thinker" divide. Many who started coding in that era later discovered they enjoyed conceptual work (architecture, product strategy, mathematical modeling, design) more than grinding out lines of code — but felt their identity was already locked into being an "implementer."<br> - The post ties into broader conversations about engineering education, impostor syndrome, and career pivots from individual contributor to architect/manager/strategist.