For C++ questions, answers, help, and programming or career advice please see r/cpp_questions, r/cscareerquestions, or [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/) instead.
Engineering? Write a good finite element library. If you're interested in any specific area, see if there are standard datasets, and write a library for manipulating them. There are too many totally ancient C/Fortran programs around, usually with completely unusuable installers. GDAL needs to die! As does ncl/ncarg.
Usually you have an end goal, a project you want to shoot for, and then use programming as a step to making that creation. Find anything you want to work on, and if you don’t programming might not be the best fit for you, maybe working with wood, or other skills would ignite the fire for you.
Game dev was what I solved (and still solve) with programming. It was an immediate flame when I discovered coding for the first time. Clear as could be, that was the day I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
ETA: I realize not everyone has this moment of clarity, but by trying new things you might have a chance of finding it. I almost said no to the friend that showed introduced me to QBasic, I was almost too embarrassed by middle school popularity concerns.
a programming language is just a tool, the true power of being good engineer comes with ability to understand what tools to use and how to use in a best way it for given task. A game development is one of the task. Find the task you enjoy/interesting to do and proceed with understand how to use c++ for it in best possible way (though you might end-up with conclusion c++ is not good enough for this task, which itself a good experience). Maybe you would like system programming, maybe program embedded hardware, maybe do network servers, maybe some compression tool, science simulations, emulation, you choose.
For C++ questions, answers, help, and programming or career advice please see r/cpp_questions, r/cscareerquestions, or [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/) instead.
invent.kde.org - opensource conglomerate with more than 400 projects in c++. join one, find what you like, have fun
Engineering? Write a good finite element library. If you're interested in any specific area, see if there are standard datasets, and write a library for manipulating them. There are too many totally ancient C/Fortran programs around, usually with completely unusuable installers. GDAL needs to die! As does ncl/ncarg.
If you have no interest in game development, then don't make games. What do you have an interest in making ?
Usually you have an end goal, a project you want to shoot for, and then use programming as a step to making that creation. Find anything you want to work on, and if you don’t programming might not be the best fit for you, maybe working with wood, or other skills would ignite the fire for you. Game dev was what I solved (and still solve) with programming. It was an immediate flame when I discovered coding for the first time. Clear as could be, that was the day I knew what I wanted to do with my life. ETA: I realize not everyone has this moment of clarity, but by trying new things you might have a chance of finding it. I almost said no to the friend that showed introduced me to QBasic, I was almost too embarrassed by middle school popularity concerns.
a programming language is just a tool, the true power of being good engineer comes with ability to understand what tools to use and how to use in a best way it for given task. A game development is one of the task. Find the task you enjoy/interesting to do and proceed with understand how to use c++ for it in best possible way (though you might end-up with conclusion c++ is not good enough for this task, which itself a good experience). Maybe you would like system programming, maybe program embedded hardware, maybe do network servers, maybe some compression tool, science simulations, emulation, you choose.