u/6_62607004

I was catching up on some of jynxzi’s chess journey and was so surprised at how much he knows about chess despite being 400. He speaks (sometimes incorrectly) about pawn structure, forks, pins, and so much more. When I started playing I never even knew what a pin really was until I reached 1000 at least. Didn’t even consider the idea of pawn structure by like 1500. When I’m watching his vids I’m just surprised that someone is 400 despite playing for months and knowing so much about the game. Is this common?

For context, I’m a grad who has just been working for under a year. I went to a pretty big school for cs that promoted software engineering for the most part and that seems to be what my whole cohort has done (outside academia). I really enjoyed computer science as a course but after working at a decently sized tech company (+ internships) I’m realising that everything I liked was left at university. I feel extremely under stimulated and like I’m not problem-solving or learning anything new anymore. Recently started looking into network engineering and I’m wondering a few things regarding a pivot:
-How likely is it for me to be able to switch? Is it common? What’s the demand for network engineers like? Do they take cs grads?
-What do I need to prepare for a potential pivot? I know there are many certifications, should I be looking/studying for those?
-Would I be sacrificing anything like money or prestige (don’t care heavily, just curious) if I end up pulling off such a switch?

Recently I’ve been in completely winning positions going into the endgame of all my games with people in the range of 100 elo points above and below me. I keep throwing huge advantages after that point though. It’s reached a point where I’ve started contemplating draw offers as soon as the endgame begins. I’m around 1700 fide classical. Anyone have resources for specifically endgames? I’ve learned openings enough to survive, middlegames through how to reassess your chess (only read up until the rooks chapter) and Daniel naroditsky speedruns, and for endgames I went through a YouTube playlist of Ben finegold’s son going through silman’s complete endgames (while I found it to be helpful I think I need some resource which puts it all together the way Daniel naroditsky’s speedruns complemented how to reassess your chess for me).

Idk if I'm phrasing this correctly, but all of the movies and shows I enjoy fall into this similar pattern of just not taking themselves too seriously + often using satire and hyperbole to demonstrate a larger social point. I don't want to overexplain because I don't even know if I effectively can, but I'll just list off some of the shows and movies I enjoyed in no particular order: The Boys, White Lotus, Triangle of sadness, Invincible, Dear White People, Peacemaker, The Lobster, and even Roommates on Netflix (not a show I would instantly click on but my friend was watching it and I found certain parts, such as the candor in joking about people's behaviour in certain socioeconomic backgrounds, to be quite endearing.) What would you recommend to me?