The Hardest Part of Modern C++ Isn't the Language.

I've been a C programmer for most of my career. The kind who can feel what the CPU is doing. Move a register here, touch a block of memory there, shave off a microsecond. When you think at that level for long enough, you start to resent anything that calls itself "modern." Not because you can't learn it. Because it feels wrong. Too many layers between you and the metal. C with classes For years, my C++ was really just C with classes. I found out later that most people who put "C++ engineer" on their resume are doing exactly the same thing. That's where you plateau, and it's a comfortable plateau. You ship code. It works. Nobody complains. And a lot of people never leave that plateau. I'm not talking about junior developers. I'm talking about engineers with decades of C experience who never made the jump. The mental model of C is: I own every byte, I control every allocation, I decide when memory lives and dies. Accepting that a destructor will clean up for you, that you should stop cal