I wanna write about the developers who inspired me to keep going.

Hey guys now i wanna write about the developers who inspired me to keep going.

Jadi

Amir “Jadi” Mirmirani: He’s an Iranian hacker, programmer, and a legend who has tons of free courses on his YouTube channel. I started watching his courses when I was a 14-year-old kid. He’s honestly one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my whole learning journey.

After I finished his final Python task, I emailed him saying, “Hey, I’m a 16-year-old kid, I watched all your courses, finished your Python class, and solved all the practice problems. Thanks!” And he actually replied with a warm message. I wasn’t expecting him to answer at all — but he did.

He’s genuinely humble… and that’s what makes him even cooler.

Btw, that’s basically how I started my journey into learning from all the grown-up programmers people like Jadi. I learned so much from him: the philosophy of freedom, keeping your smile, staying humble, and always learning anything you’re curious about. Even if you think it’s too late, it’s not. In one of his videos, he said something like: “Even if you’re a 60–70-year-old man or woman and you wanna become a great painter, nothing can stop you except you.” That line stuck with me. So yeah keep going.

Unfortunately, Jadi had to leave Iran because of issues caused by the government. I actually had the chance to see him at the FlatEarth event. I’m not even the type of person who likes taking pictures with anyone honestly, I hate that — but Jadi was one of my best teachers when I was a kid, so that photo means a lot to me.

I hope he’s happy right now.

John Carmack

Here we go — now I wanna talk about a game developer who absolutely blew my mind with his abilities. Most of us know him because of DOOM… yeah, that DOOM. He was one of the legendary programmers of the ’90s.

When I was a 17-year-old , I really fell in love with game development using Unity and C#. I got obsessed with the mastermind behind all those iconic 2D and 3D games. The guy was on another level — the kind of programmer who could probably buy his own Ferrari just from his code. LOL

If you think about it, these guys were making games at a time when there were no “super computers” like we have today. They were working with CRT monitors and, like, 1MB of RAM at best. And still… they created masterpieces.

I still watch his podcasts and webinars. He’s honestly one of the best programmers I’ve ever seen in my life — one of the most talented people in the entire game-dev industry.

Btw, John Carmack now works at Keen Technologies as an AI engineer. He’s working on AGI these days, which is just wild.

He’s one of the programmers who inspired me to try building cool games over the years — even though I’m not a game developer. And honestly, I love the way he communicates as an introverted person. It just feels real.

Guido Van Rossum

Now I wanna talk about one of the programmers who made Python feel way more fun for me. When I watched the documentary about Guido van Rossum, I got obsessed with his style and his whole vibe.

He mentioned that when Google had days off — like when everyone else would go out, party, or relax — he would just stay home and work on Python. And fun fact: “Python” isn’t named after the snake. He actually named it after a comedy show (“Monty Python”). That alone says so much about his personality.

This man showed me that you can truly enjoy the work you’re doing. You can play with your ideas, make fun little projects, and who knows — maybe that “fun stuff” ends up changing the entire world.

That’s the difference between someone who learns programming just to make money… and someone who learns programming out of passion, ambition, and pure curiosity.

Linus Torvalds

Finally, it’s Linus Torvalds’ turn. Is there anyone who doesn’t know him? I don’t think so — I can’t imagine a programmer in the world who hasn’t heard of him.

He’s one of the smartest, most talented, and ambitious programmers alive. He created Linux all by himself. He created Git all by himself. And he’s still actively working on the Linux project — just check out his GitHub activity.

Honestly… the guy is kind of a messy genius. He completely blew my mind.

3,112 contributions in the last year. That was freaking insane, dude.

I watched one of his TED talks, and the presenter asked him, “Are you an ambitious person?” He said: “No, I try to keep my feet on the ground and focus on making it cleaner and better.”

That quote hit me hard. At that moment, it changed the way I approached programming — made me dive deeper into low-level languages, really understand Git, and pay attention to my neglected GitHub repos.

Honestly, he’s the greatest idol I’ve ever had in my life.

Dave Plummer

Another one of the programming legends from the ’90s is Dave Plummer, the guy who created the Windows Task Manager. As someone with ADHD myself, I really like how open he is about his ADHD and autism. He motivated me not to limit myself because of those things.

He created tons of patents during his time at Microsoft, and now he runs his own company called SoftwareOnline. These days he mostly works as an investor — and honestly, I love his career path and his creativity.

From him, I learned how to look at things from a different angle, explore new perspectives, and think outside the box. You never know… maybe the cool stuff is hiding right beyond the obvious.

Richard Stallman

RMS (Richard M. Stallman) — he’s one of the most famous programmers in the world, and honestly, he’s a true genius. I first heard about him while listening to Radio Geek (one of Jadi’s most famous podcasts). That’s where I learned about his philosophy of software freedom.

He created the whole ideology around free software — not “free” as in price, but free as in freedom. He started the GNU Project as a free alternative to UNIX after companies like Microsoft and Apple began pushing private, closed-source software. He believed that closed software would eventually harm our privacy, because we’re running programs we can’t inspect and don’t fully understand.

So he built GNU… but it still didn’t have a kernel. And then — boom — breaking news: a student from Finland created a kernel called Linux (shout-out to Linus Torvalds).

From Stallman, I learned that sometimes you have to sacrifice something to achieve something bigger. I really like his philosophy about freedom — even though, yeah, sometimes freedom itself can be dangerous.

Anders Hejlsberg

Since I’m someone who got inspired by JavaScript, I naturally fell in love with TypeScript ( DHH and The Primeagen are totally gonna kill me for saying that. ) and C# too. And who’s better to talk about than the guy behind those languages at Microsoft — Anders Hejlsberg.

I like him a lot. He’s calm, smart, incredibly talented, and has this amazing ability to work with brilliant people. His soft skills are on another level, and I’ve learned a ton from every podcast and lecture he’s ever done.

Honestly, I totally vibe with his career path. He’s one of the most emotionally stable programmers I’ve ever seen — like, metal-level stability. LOL.

I wanna be social like him someday. I’m always trying to learn from him, because that’s such an important part of leading a team of nerdy programmers. And another reason I like him? He’s just like Linus — his GitHub is always active. It’s hilarious. I get jealous, dude.

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What do you think about him? Do you think he’s a Formula One driver? The answer is NOOOOOOO.

He’s actually the most dramatic programmer on Twitter — another absolute legend in the tech world. His name is DHH — David Heinemeier Hansson. This man is the reason I started learning Ruby on Rails. He created Ruby on Rails, and he’s one of the most well-known figures in the entire industry.

He’s had some serious clashes with Apple and even boycotts them now. And guess what? He uses NeoVIMMMMM now — yeah, NeoVim, dude. (I don’t wanna sound too hyper, but come on… that’s wild.)

When I watched his podcast with Lex Fridman, he said something that really got me. He said:

“Yeah, you can use AI, you can vibe-code to build something… but that’s not programming, mate. You can watch tons of guitar tutorials, but you’ll never enjoy playing guitar until you actually pick one up, learn some chords, and play.”

That was insanely mind-blowing. He’s a legit legend — and he completely changed my career path as a developer last year.

Thanks, DHH. (And yes, I know… you’re always right about everything.)

Marcus Hutchins

Now I wanna talk about one of my favorite hackers… Marcus Hutchins. When I listened to his full documentary on Radio Geek (Podcast #101), I was blown away by him and his abilities. He’s honestly one of the most talented people I’ve ever heard about — every part of his story feels like a movie scene.

Shout-out to Jadi for his deep investigation and storytelling about Marcus. But when I learned about him, I actually got a bit depressed… because I realized I would never have the same opportunity to work as a hacker — you know, living in Iran makes that dream almost impossible.

This is the guy who literally saved the internet from the WannaCry malware. He’s an absolute genius. These days, he has his own YouTube channel, and yeah — he’s finally free now after everything he went through. He was arrested for some stuff he did when he was younger on the dark web, but honestly… his whole journey is insane. One of the most impressive young hackers I’ve ever seen.

From him, I learned that I should always try my best — and always try to do the right thing… even if sometimes doing the right thing can make your life harder, or make you look like the “bad guy” to some people.

But still — choose the right thing. Every time.

Preston Thorpe

A couple of months ago, I heard about a developer who massively inspired me. He learned programming and even got his first tech job while he was in jail. Dude… that’s insanely respectable.

When I read Preston Thorp’s article, I honestly felt connected to his story. I liked him right away. I learned from him that you should chase the things you love — no matter the situation. Even in jail, this man focused on learning and building. He’s one of the most impressive people I’ve ever come across.

Now Preston works as a Senior Software Engineer at Turso. Shout-out to Preston — he even bought a home right next to his family’s house. I’m sure his family is incredibly proud of him right now. And shout-out to The Primeagen too, for investigating his story and giving him a platform.

(And seriously… if you know anyone in jail, send them a book.)

Primeagen

Here we go now the time of the PRIME. Yeah buddy, why not? I like him so much. He works like a superpower for me. When I’m depressed, I start watching Prime. When I need to be updated about the tech world, I go and check the PrimeTime channel. He amazes me every time, and because of him I started working with Vim a couple of years ago, and in these past months I started using NeoVim too.

Prime worked as a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix for 13 years, and then he left Netflix and started building his billion-dollar startup with TeeJ and Trash on YouTube (LOL). That’s such a Prime move.

Anyway, I learned a lot from Prime: to be cool, to have fun, to take care of my family, to have a few but good friends who can learn from each other, and to be a clown with them when life gets heavy. He showed me that you can be chaotic, loud, funny, and still be an amazing developer.

Thanks for everything, Prime. You were one of the best developers in my life, and you changed my life three times. Thank you.

Terry (KING) Davis

Now we are ready to talk about the king himself, Terry. The man who created his own operating system (TempleOS) and even his own programming language (Holy C). He literally said that God chose him to create an OS and a language. So is this the story of a genius… or a psychopath?

I dunno. But imo , he was kind of a genius. He was a true king. Building a whole operating system entirely by yourself is like trying to build a whole tower alone. It’s insanely hard, complex, and almost impossible — but he did it.

His story reminds me of Ernest Hemingway in a way. There’s something tragic, brilliant, and chaotic at the same time.

After a couple of years, he fell into mental illness. He worked alone, he became homeless, but he was still a king without a crown. He didn’t accept help from anyone, even when he had nothing. He always thought the FBI and CIA were chasing him. Just like Hemingway, it seems he couldn’t handle the weight of everything anymore, and the king of our story decided to end his own life.

He walked on the train tracks. When the train came toward him, he saw the train, he saw the whole world, and that was the end of our king’s story — just like Hemingway, who put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Yeah, it’s sad. And I learned a lot from these kinds of people. I can’t even say what exactly, because I don’t wanna get arrested or chased.

R.I.P KING

Thanks for reading… Have a great day. Elliot :) Cheers…