Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 23:46:06 -0700 From: Joshua Tinnin <krinklyfig@spymac.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: When Unix Stops Being Fun Message-ID: <200410022346.06830.krinklyfig@spymac.com> In-Reply-To: <20041002225028.05205e9a.metaridley@mchsi.com> References: <20041002225028.05205e9a.metaridley@mchsi.com>
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On Saturday 02 October 2004 08:50 pm, Dave Vollenweider <metaridley@mchsi.com> wrote: > 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? Well, I can only tell you about my own experience, but perhaps it will help. I have always been a techie, getting my first computer at the age of 14 - an Apple IIe. Learned some Basic, some peeks and pokes and even some assembly. But I found that I also liked music, and tended more to that side of things for the latter half of my teens and into my 20s, though I never went to college (started a few times, but didn't know what I wanted to do). Somehow I ended up doing web design for a band in my mid 20s, and even though the band broke up, I was good enough at it that it became my career in 2000, right when the dot-com bubble started to burst. I was 30, just starting my career with no degree but making $50k (not great, but not bad), and worked for three different failed companies in the course of a year and a half. Most of this time I was using Windows, but I used various flavors of *nix during the course of my work, mostly Red Hat, plus I installed SuSE at home and used it occasionally. My specialty was front-end web development - I found it increasingly difficult to find work from 2001 onward, especially because I had no strong programming skills, but could do JavaScript and some other scripting, and I also didn't have credentials as a graphic designer, even though I could do it by gut instinct (which sometimes isn't good enough). Eventually I came to hate doing web design, partially because I couldn't find paying work, but mostly because it's not the right discipline for me anyway - it sort of fell in my lap, and I made a go of it. I've been bouncing around between low paying jobs since then, wondering how the hell to get my career started again without going back to school for four years to get a computer science degree, when I discovered FreeBSD. That was last spring. I now know exactly what I want to do, which is to get that computer science degree and then some, specializing in systems administration, and to go into teaching at the college level. First, I know this is a hard road, especially at the age of 34, but I am tired of not *really* knowing my stuff, so to speak. I've been a techie my whole life and even made some money at it, but I've gotten by without having the deep knowledge required to really understand the workings of an *nix OS such as FreeBSD, which I very much want to do, and plus it's time to get serious. I've also found that the systems administration/network end of the spectrum is what suits me best, but I don't care about getting paid big money as much as wanting to teach others (and, concurrently, also have the time and resources to devote to projects such as FreeBSD). It's not a particularly glorious career choice, and if I were a bit different I might want to really go for the corporate path and a fat salary, but honestly I'm happier not working in that sort of environment. YMMV. - jt
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