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Date:      Sat, 2 Oct 2004 23:09:44 -0700
From:      "steveb99" <steveb99@earthlink.net>
To:        "'Dave Vollenweider'" <metaridley@mchsi.com>, "'FreeBSD Questions'" <questions@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   RE: When Unix Stops Being Fun
Message-ID:  <20041003060946.23F2143D46@mx1.FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <20041002225028.05205e9a.metaridley@mchsi.com>

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I think what you are going through is something people go through no
matter what their career path is. I would say when you reach that
point is when you have to decide is this something I want to do for
the next n years.  

The first part of my life I was a musician and did all sorts of gigs
from recording, touring, casuals.  After many years I hit the same
point you are at now.  Music just became a job it wasn't fun anymore
and that is when I got into computers.  I hit the same point with
computers after about four or five years and went back to music.
After I year I was missing computer work and returned to IT work. I
have been there ever since. That is about ten years now.

I would say your doing the right thing, talking through it. If you
like computers a lot maybe you just need to find a specialty to peak
your interest and make it exciting again. If you are not sure you want
to continue, well try something else out in the background and see if
it excites you. Take some night classes in what you would like to do
instead of being an SA.  See if after a few months of classes and
learning a new career if it still excites you. If it doesn't you
haven't lost your job in the computer industry.

Last some people a job is just a job, a way to pay the bills and make
money so they can enjoy life when not at work.  They become very good
at what they do, and they keep there skills up to keep being a
valuable employee.  They do work they enjoy, but they don't look for
work to excite them. They leave work and enjoy their family, friends,
and hobbies.  Maybe you fall into that category. Being an SA is just
an job you enjoy and you need to find new things to do when off work
that interest you.

Good Luck,
Steve B.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of 
> Dave Vollenweider
> Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2004 8:50 PM
> To: FreeBSD Questions
> Subject: When Unix Stops Being Fun
> 
> This has nothing to do with technical problems, but rather 
> it's more of a request for moral support.  This may seem 
> disjointed, so bear with me.
> 
> I've been using FreeBSD for over six months now, but I've 
> been using Unix-like operating systems for almost two years.  
> I started with Red Hat Linux back when Red Hat was making and 
> selling their "consumer-grade" version of Red Hat Linux, then 
> switched to Debian before going to FreeBSD last March.  I now 
> also run NetBSD on one of my machines.
> 
> Through all this, I've developed a passion for this type of 
> OS, seeing the elegance, performance, and sheer power of 
> Unix.  This has affected me to the point of me changing my 
> career path.  Before I got into these OSs, I wanted to get 
> into radio.  Now I'd rather either be a system administrator 
> or run my own consulting business for entities that use these 
> types of OSs.  But herein lies the problem I've been having 
> lately: while searching around for what I'd need to know to 
> become a system administrator, I came across this page: 
> http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/8/13/131727/462 and I'm 
> overwhelmed by the sheer amount of knowledge I'd have to 
> gain.  It took me almost two years to get to where I am 
> today, and it looks like I've barely scratched the surface of 
> what I'd need to know.  But now, I feel like instead of 
> learning things on my own for fun, I have to learn other 
> things I don't really have a need to learn for myself or that 
> I want to, just so that I can apply that to oth  er peoples' 
> situations.  The result is that lately learning these OSs has 
> become more of a chore than a fun hobby, and I'm still 
> intimidated by what I need to learn to get to where I want to 
> go.  It almost seems like it's not worth it.
> 
> Now, being that I know there are some very experienced people 
> on this list, I'm betting that I'm not the only one that has 
> experienced this, that learning new things in Unix-like OSs 
> becomes more of a chore than something to do for fun.  My 
> question is, what advice would you have for dealing with this?
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