I once thought I was clever, only to later realize I was just a spoon!

A rural kid, diligent, eager to learn, from an ordinary 211 university in Beijing, majoring in communications. A few years ago, communications engineering was a very popular major, but people from small towns were often misinformed and ended up in big pitfalls. In my freshman year, after talking with a senior, I learned that big companies like Huawei and Datang only required two things from graduates of communications engineering: “male” and “normal graduation”! Now, even with a bachelor’s degree, it is difficult to find a job purely related to communications. Many courses at school are almost useless in the workplace, like digital signal processing and high-frequency circuits, and we are advised to seek other paths. Due to financial reasons, I couldn’t pursue a master’s degree and needed to resolve material issues quickly.

At that time, two paths lay before me: compete with computer science and software engineering majors for jobs; or compete with automation and electronics majors!

Since communications engineering and automation/electronics courses are almost identical, and programming can be self-taught, I decided, after careful consideration, to combine both fields, mastering both software and hardware! The only choice was to enter the embedded industry. Because the communications process involves learning some hardware courses, such as analog circuits and digital circuits; I would also touch upon programming knowledge, with C language as the fundamental course, and then VHDL and MATLAB as well. I didn’t want to learn things that I wouldn’t use later (I was so pure back then).

While my classmates played games every day, I started planning for the future; at that time, I admired myself.

To enter the embedded industry, one generally needs to start with the 8051 microcontroller. I picked the cheapest one on Taobao and spent a month getting it to work, figuring out GPIO lighting, matrix displays, UART, I2C, etc. Most people stop here, thinking they can find a job after graduation. Maybe 20 years ago, this knowledge made you a high-tech talent, but consider that it only takes a month to learn these things—what kind of high-tech is that? With so many university graduates every year, where is your competitive edge?

So I continued to push forward! Onward, young man!

It’s not that I wasn’t hardworking enough; it’s just that society is too complex!

The first month went smoothly, but in the next nearly three years, I faced the situation of “three years of skills learned, but no practical application of them”.

I bought a few 2440 and 210 development boards and spent over two years honing my skills. Looking back, I felt so pitiful—why was there no one to guide me? (It would have been so wonderful if someone had given me guidance and direction while I was wholeheartedly moving forward).

Now, let me share my experiences in detail.

At that time, every shop selling 2440 on Taobao provided different tutorials. I thought to myself, I want to get ten!

The first board I bought was one starting with ‘y’, an old brand, with rich resources and relatively cheap. Coming out of the world of microcontrollers, seeing something that could run an operating system and had a graphical interface, I felt completely different—there are no words to describe it, just “wow”. The ‘y’ development board came with a WinCE system, which requires C++ or C#. Well, since my basics weren’t good, I had to learn (there’s nothing wrong with learning a programming language), and after finishing the language learning, I started from the basics to the WinCE architecture, and all its APIs. This experience was truly dark; the WinCE architecture is extremely complex, but for simple applications or less in-depth study, it’s not too difficult. I memorized various WinCE APIs every day, finally getting proficient and writing a few small programs.

Then I heard that the ‘t’ series development board was doing very well with Qtopia, so I thought I should learn from the best materials! I spent several hundred yuan on it; Qtopia is indeed excellent, and its open-source level is higher than WinCE. It is said that there is a free version for product applications, unlike WinCE, which requires licensing fees. The interface of Qtopia is fantastic; I won’t deny it, and the structure is clear, much easier to learn than WinCE. I started learning Qtopia, and after half a year, I was immersed in its architecture, graphical UI, driver calls, etc.!

Next was the ‘f’ series, which was said to have tutorials on how to write in the console. I saw that the console could print various graphics and even play Tetris and Snake! Without hesitation, I bought it and started learning!

Then came the ‘j’ series, which was said to be great for bare-metal programming, with system porting tutorials. It looked so advanced. Well, I bought it and started learning! Plus, this board required purchasing the tutorials! This development board taught me a life lesson: spending money doesn’t guarantee quality; sometimes, cheap and free options are better. Later, I bought the 210 board and learned Android 2.0!

These are the boards I can remember!

But my initial direction was leading me down a wrong path! I bought several 2440 development boards, and the money spent could have paid for a training class; thinking back, it really pains me. At that time, I was doing various part-time jobs, handing out flyers, waiting tables, and tutoring, which was so hard; although it doesn’t seem like a lot now, back then, earning that money was not easy!

There was a moment when millions of alpacas ran through my mind, where is my knife? Where is my knife?

In the second semester of my junior year, I faced the job search issue. The first time I looked at recruitment requirements and exchanged information with fellow villagers and graduated seniors, I was suddenly dumbfounded!

WinCE was completely useless! It’s an obsolete technology! I used to think Microsoft was reliable, but I realized that the actions of any company are commercial. As WinCE became less used, it naturally stopped updating, and with fewer companies using it, new entrants couldn’t enter, and the old ones slowly changed careers!

The greatest pain is forgiveness, and the darkest despair is hopelessness!

Qtopia is completely useless! It was clearly stated in that Baidu article that it stopped maintenance and updates in 2009. Now, embedded systems use Linux-Qt, also known as QtE! Everything I learned about graphical interfaces is now useless! A special reminder: distinguish between Qtopia and QtE! QtE is still widely used, but never learn Qtopia!

The promises you gave were all lies; how could I still believe you until now!

What about the console printing thing? Well, never mind, it’s all tears! Are you kidding me?

Seeking the area of psychological shadow!

Porting? Creating an operating system yourself? That’s just a gimmick. After years of work, I realized that it should be called BSP development; all operating systems must be launched by super-large companies, not something a single impressive teacher can complete independently. The code can easily reach millions or even tens of millions; can these impressive teachers produce that? Just reading through it would take several lifetimes! Let them continue to boast; they don’t pay taxes anyway.

Millions of alpacas roared through my heart!

What about Android 2.0? Useless! The changes from Android 1.0 to 4.0 are enormous; by the time 4.0 came out, Android was widely applied to smartphones. Forget about 2.0!

Where is my knife? How great would it be to kill without consequences!

I always thought I was a unique person, only to later realize that the life most people pursue is the most worthwhile.

Seeing my classmates with their own plans—some have connections at home and don’t need to worry, some will take over the family business, some want to pursue a master’s degree into research institutes, some want to be civil servants, and some believe they can do sales… Those like me, preparing to engage in technology, began to learn Android and iOS or venture into upper-level programming, while others started learning how to layout for hardware design.

Well, I had to start over; isn’t it just changing a version of Android? Learning, learning, learning! So I quietly began learning Android; almost everything I learned before, except for hardware and syntax, was useless.

After six months of intensive study, I updated my resume and went to interviews, finally landing a somewhat suitable job! The rest is not much to say; I am now working in embedded Android.

Now, combining the current development of embedded systems, let me tell you how to identify bad merchants!

Embedded systems have eliminated many technologies over the years and introduced many new ones. Some have survived the test of time, while others have vanished, leaving behind many shadows of obsolete technologies, becoming the biggest obstacles for beginners in embedded systems.

Remember the following principles (a bit extreme, but heartfelt words):

Any merchant claiming to teach porting Android, Linux, or similar operating systems should be disregarded! That is a task for hundreds of people working together.

Any merchant that prominently features WinCE on their page and promotes it extensively should be disregarded! WinCE does not support multi-core; it has been dead for many years!

Any merchant that prominently features Qtopia on their page should be disregarded! That thing has been dead for seven years; who are they trying to fool?

Any merchant that mentions Android 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 should be disregarded! Those versions have never been widely used!

Any merchant that showcases large-scale bare-metal video tutorials should be disregarded! Unless you are wealthy and want to play around or plan to work with microcontrollers forever (which is also a life path). Additionally, during student days, you may think you are independent and have independent thoughts. In reality, it’s easy to idolize someone; seeing a picture on Taobao claiming to have a best-selling book can lead to blind admiration. Even if you idolize someone, you are actually admiring the large team behind them, not just that one person! So-called famous teachers should be disregarded!

Over the past few years, I have been lurking in these groups and found that most of the people who bought those boards at the same time as I did have not been able to eat from the bowl of embedded engineers, except for those working with microcontrollers (which is too simple and has low pay)! I believe this is closely related to the malicious advertising of these bad merchants!

Gustave Le Bon described human group behavior as “a mob”; this applies perfectly here. An inappropriate advertisement leads others to follow suit, ruining many merchants, and those who buy do not tell newcomers that they have learned nothing, as it would make them look foolish! Ultimately, the ones who suffer are the “crowd”—the poor science boys.

Children from ivory towers, before spending money on learning, go check the recruitment requirements; which jobs are hiring more, which ones are in urgent need, and which ones offer higher salaries, then go learn! After all, the market determines everything, not any teacher!

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