2019-08-23 - NCurses and internet overload
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This evening i have looked around a bit for the possibilities of 
using ncurses to program a little game. Seems that could be a fun 
activity to do. I think it might be interesting to dabble a bit on 
creating a simple text-mode rpg-like game.

Although, maybe it is good to play some cli games first to get a 
bit of a feeling for them. Hmmm, it has been a while since i played 
any MUD or a roguelike... Hmm... Gonna do that now i think :D

So much for writing a phlog... You know... this is the thing with 
the www, there's so much to find, that you get an overload of 
ideas, and i end up doing nothing but browsing. Bah.. goodbye 
creativity.

Being able to search answers instantly to any question is a bit too 
much for me really. And it kills creativity and inventiveness. I 
think there is something really nice about not knowing stuff.

I remember wanting to know something specific about programming 
when i was a kid, and i would have to wait until i was able to get 
to the library (like once a week). The local library would then 
have a very limited collection of books related to programming, so 
if you were lucky you could find something remotely related to the 
topic you were interested in.

So you would end up trying to solve any programming puzzles slowly, 
by trial and error. Or by talking to some friends about it, or by 
reading some manual for the n-th time.  And eventually after lots 
of trying, thinking and reading you'd find a way to do the thing 
you wanted.

Perhaps not in the most elegant or the most perfect way, but that 
was not important. You solved something on your own, and that was 
nice.

Nowadays you just type your question in google and you find ten 
people on stackoverflow already solved your problem in a much 
better way than you could have ever imagined yourself... Oh and on 
top of that, there's also five libraries already available who do 
this exact thing you're trying to build.

So you end up using other peoples ideas, instead of being creative 
yourself. And that's a pity...  Well, it's perhaps not a pity if 
you program as a job and need to create programs quickly. But it is 
a pity if you're a (really) casual programmer, who just likes to 
learn little things in a slow pace, and create simple creative 
programs.

You know, i want to program as if i'm 11-years old again. Just 
program for the sake of programming itself. Having a sense of 
wonder how and why things work. Not thinking about efficiency, or 
optimizing or code-correctness or models. And while not being 
hindered by knowing anything, enjoying myself with finding out 
silly ways to solve little things, in order to draw some circles on 
the screen, or move a little ascii guy around. And imagine... just 
imagine about all the things you could do. Just on my own, instead 
of looking them up on the web.