Oh, I do remember the grim story really well. I was there. I still have all the books. And the scars.
Back then I was a young innocent programming soul trying to reconcile C++ and GoF and UML and all that. And Modern C++ Design. And const here const there const copy constructor by reference.
I spent about 12 years doing C++ at the very peak of its OOP hype and did the same... then finally left, certain that I would hate doing "real" work in any other language, and a funny thing happened...
I realized I was suffering from severe Stockholm Syndrome. Node.js was just.... so gd easy to do anything in. Maybe too easy (a la leftpad), but build/deploy cycles were instantaneous, adding new libraries was easy- again maybe too easy, JS has a tiny fraction of the footguns and you don't have to know them all to write code that isn't going to blow up on you or cause memory leaks and performance issues.
Python... was the same. I have even taken some dives into Java, and while I don't love the architectural monuments Java devs tend to produce, its still less of a hassle than C++.
I was so happy when there was a move towards templates and data oriented design and the priests of OOP were getting knocked off their pedestals- for a period you were at risk of getting shunned for not kneeling at the gods of OOP and the GOF book and UML diagrams.
I remember arguing for years with my father (also a programmer) about him writing either vanilla C, or writing C++ in (what would become) the data-oriented style.
...and look at me now!
I collect things in arrays, with no objects, preferrably in pure C. No classes, no objects, just arrays and transforming functions everywhere.
Back then I was a young innocent programming soul trying to reconcile C++ and GoF and UML and all that. And Modern C++ Design. And const here const there const copy constructor by reference.
Anyway. I like vanilla C. And Go at times.