Having said this, there is still a reasonable amount of industry in the UK, the UK is by far the best country in the EU to buy engineering supplies but I think this is a remnant of the past. Most of the major engineering companies in industrial estates are Asian or American owned, now.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu_Tack

I learnt C then Verilog, I am fluent in Verilog. The mindset for designing digital logic is completely different to programming computers, it literally is a completely different skill. The problem is, people think just because they can type a (procedural) programming language they can program anything that is programmed with a code which is where peoples initial distaste for Verilog and VHDL comes from. When you learn how to do it, I think designing logic is refreshing compared to writing software, there's so much baggage with software.

Not really. You wouldn't expect good programs from someone who has no idea how a computer works. The language is the knobs and dials. You need to know what the knobs and dials do in the machine.

I have a genuine question as I’m very naive to Minecraft. I see a lot of time / thought / energy dedicated to making things in Minecraft and can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a waste of time. I think I feel this way because I don’t know much about Minecraft or the community. Other than for pleasure (which is a plenty good enough reason on its own) is there any value generated here? People can obviously do what they like with their time but I would much rather spend my precious hours working on something to add to the real world.

I think managers etc get a bit carried away with the whole family idea thing. It can be used like a weapon to convince people to work longer to help their ‘family members’ with their work. But who gave them too much work in the first place?

I imagine it’s mostly down to lack of exercise and mental state.