I am an unemployed programmer, over 30 years old, who used to be a frontend web developer.
It was a normal day in January 2026. I dragged a ticket from TO DO to In Progress in JIRA and was about to start my work after the online stand-up meeting. Suddenly, a Slack call rang. It was my manager. This seemed unusual because we typically use messages to notify teammates who are late for meetings. I picked up the call and saw not only my manager's face but also the HR representative's. I knew then what was about to happen.
You might think I was upset about the termination. I can't deny that I felt some upset, but mostly, I felt relieved from the bottom of my heart.
Do I like to code? Yes, I enjoy writing handcrafted programs. But do I like working on heavy commercial applications? No.
That job made me feel like a laborer on a production line. I made parts for different models without knowing why, simply because my boss wanted them. The business logic of large systems is not attractive to me. My attitude was: "Tell me what you need, I make it, you pay me, over."
I believe I am smart enough to be a programmer, but I am not a naturally talented coder. To be honest, I am not significantly talented in any specific field. I always advise young students not to major in languages because a language is just a tool that anyone can learn. I feel the same way about my profession. AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to creating programs. Coding skills are becoming commoditized, which means I, as a coder, am rapidly becoming cheaper.
Being unemployed gives me a chance to try things other than the daily grind. I stayed in that job because it was what I knew, and I had to feed my family. Now is the best time to rethink my career path.
I don't want to work for an employer anymore—not because I am tired of job searching, but because I want to do what I truly enjoy. I asked Gemini for advice and decided that using Python to build my own programs is a good start.
I need to learn Python. I don't know it yet because it wasn't part of my previous work framework.
What will I do with Python?
I am a communist living on a continent where many fear communism. My plan is to create a blog presenting commercial or political data, accompanied by my points of view.
How will I get the data? I will use Python to build web crawlers. This appeals to me because I can combine my programming skills with my interest in data and society.
I created this repository for my Python learning journey. I will store my code and experiments here.