When I started soldering everything was big and had leads that went through holes in the board. You inserted the leads, bent them over to hold the component, flipped the board over, soldered everything, and trimmed off the excess leads.
Now I’m soldering things down to 0402 SMDs (1/4 the size of the smallest component in the picture) using a needle point soldering tip and a microscope.
A pair of 2N2222 transistors, one SOT23 and one TO-92.
Wait till you get older and your fine motor skills get sketchy.
I’m 57. The designer I do the soldering jobs for is in his early 80s. He can’t do SMDs so I do all of that for him. He can still do THT components just fine but his designs have gotten more advanced and he just can’t fit everything on the boards using THT.
I’m 35 and already feeling that :S
We have to adopt, I started working on old tube radios. Soldering spots 10 times the iron tip 😁