How Navi (NeetCode) went from electrical engineering student to falling in love with programming.

  • Studied electrical engineering in college because he liked math and physics; took the required intro to C class reluctantly 6:43
  • Was initially bad at it — struggled with printf format specifiers while everyone around him picked it up quickly; programming felt like "a very different way of thinking" despite its relation to math 7:03
  • It clicked after learning variables, conditions, loops, and functions: simple primitives compose into "infinite complexity" — like Google Spanner combining programming with physics, atomic clocks, and GPS 7:30, 7:55
  • Reality check on entering the workforce: programming is a business — you don't get to pick the languages or problems you enjoy, which "took some of the fun out of it" and left him with a love-hate relationship with programming 8:18, 8:37