--- title: Programming projects that rewired my brain | daily.dev description: Three foundational programming projects are recommended to deepen understanding of how software actually works: building your own programming language (using... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Programming projects that rewired my brain | daily.dev og:description: Three foundational programming projects are recommended to deepen understanding of how software actually works: building your own programming language (using... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/eBHjITA7N.png og:image:alt: Programming projects that rewired my brain og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Programming projects that rewired my brain **[bigboxSWE](https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe)** · 4 min read · 53 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Three foundational programming projects are recommended to deepen understanding of how software actually works: building your own programming language (using 'Crafting Interpreters' by Bob Nystrom), creating a tiny task scheduler or OS module to understand memory and CPU cycles, and building a database from scratch to grasp indexes, transactions, and concurrency. These projects are language-independent and teach systems thinking rather than specific technologies, strengthening fundamentals that remain relevant as software engineering evolves rapidly. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@raqeeb82** · 4 upvotes > Seeing new technologies coming every day feels like I am left behind....But I realized that it is not possible to master every framework as they change or are overthrown by some other new frameworks.....But the fundamentals remain the same. **@alphascourge** · 0 upvotes > This video takes remake the wheel to a whole new level.... > > I personally do not think you need to rebuild and make your own Language/DB we are not all Minecraft devs the amount of time used on remaking a Language can be instead used in understand DevOps/Azure/Other important languages not a new one no one will hire you for. Do not get me wrong I agree you will get a deeper understanding of code in general when making your own DB/Language but I do not see it as time efficient enough to make sense. --- Tags: [#backend](https://daily.dev/tags/backend) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Programming projects that rewired my brain","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n"},"datePublished":"2026-02-28T12:50:13.611Z","dateModified":"2026-02-28T12:50:33.458Z","description":"Three foundational programming projects are recommended to deepen understanding of how software actually works: building your own programming language (using...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3GJcskn5mAg/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3GJcskn5mAg/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"bigboxSWE","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"bigboxSWE","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--KMRj-zRu--/f_auto/v1711188128/logos/bigboxswe","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe"},"commentCount":3,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":53},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}],"keywords":"backend","timeRequired":"PT4M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Programming projects that rewired my brain","description":"Three foundational programming projects are recommended to deepen understanding of how software actually works: building your own programming language (using...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3GJcskn5mAg/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-02-28T12:50:13.611Z","duration":"PT4M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/eBHjITA7N","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/3GJcskn5mAg"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"bigboxSWE","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/bigboxswe"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Programming projects that rewired my brain"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-projects-that-rewired-my-brain-ebhjita7n","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Seeing new technologies coming every day feels like I am left behind…But I realized that it is not possible to master every framework as they change or are overthrown by some other new frameworks…But the fundamentals remain the same.","datePublished":"2026-03-09T01:00:26.952Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/eBHjITA7N#c-r51sNNB2l","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Raqeeb","url":"https://daily.dev/raqeeb82","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--mSSndYXs--/f_auto/v1772162396/avatars/avatar_CppvlxtfXZWmjPmetFtos?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This video takes remake the wheel to a whole new level…\nI personally do not think you need to rebuild and make your own Language/DB we are not all Minecraft devs the amount of time used on remaking a Language can be instead used in understand DevOps/Azure/Other important languages not a new one no one will hire you for. 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