JakkFrosted said:
I have a fascination with computing (at least I think I do), but the more I learn the more I feel like there are missing pieces of information.
The more you learn, the more do you understand how little you actually know. This is not a sneer, that's what I've come to realize and I think most of us have.
Just for context; I started out fascinated by computers, my Commodore 64 to begin with, and was determined to pursue this as my line of work. When I started studying all this to get some papers I was facing the issue that what I wanted to learn simply wasn't available yet. That is... I have always been software minded, but especially in those days the best way to program a computer (ASM or 'low level' languages) you were basically accessing your hardware more or less directly. But I wasn't really interested in hardware, but software.
However, my options at that time were either hardware (a small dose of programming using Pascal or Assembler) or software which more or less focussed on diving "deeper" into the at that time commonly used software such as WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase (topped by using Clipper to produce somewhat individual dBase-like programs). I was lucky that I managed to cheat the system and get a good dose of both
Just for context, but most of the experience I have now is obtained through self study and by participating in communities such as this one.
Either way; what you're describing here really isn't that uncommon. I've experienced this while studying Windows environments (say what you want about Microsoft, but in my opinion some of their stuff is impressive, like for example their
mmc (ManageMent Console) structure, or what to think about PowerShell) as well as Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD as of late. Same applied to me. The more you learn...
JakkFrosted said:
I think a formal education would help me to know what I don't know I don't know. Here's the thing: I have no clue where to start.
I wouldn't count on that to be honest.
Which gets us to the heart of the issue: what exactly do you feel to be missing out on?
The reason I ask]
[*]Don't try to take it on all at once; when you begin try focussing on a specific subject and widen your field from there on. For example: "How do I install extra software on FreeBSD?" "Using Ports". That brings you into contact with commands like
# make install
. "So how do I keep this 'ports' up to date?" "Using
portsnap or
svn". And all of a sudden you have 2 new (but related) things to study. "How do I control this
portsnap thing?" "Using
/etc/portsnap.conf". "How do I edit this?" "Using an editor like
vi or
edit." And all of a sudden you went from installing software to learning how to edit files on FreeBSD.
[*]It's often better to pursue or confirm answers yourself instead of blindly relying on other people. In general a
lot of people merely copy the answer(s) which they discovered to work without understanding as to why it works. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but if you really want to learn about a specific topic you'll want to know the 'why' part too. So worded differently: don't pursue the solution to a problem, try to understand why that solution actually works.
[*]Don't take stuff for granted; try them out yourself! When I started with this cool FreeBSD thing every piece of documentation told me that maintaining ports was horrid but
portmaster was the answer. I started out ignoring that altogether to experience the horror for myself. Which even introduced me to another horror: installing an outdated port (
ports-mgmg/portmanager), which even managed to do quite some damage on my system. Time consuming for sure, but the stuff which that experience tought me was priceless! (for example; look into
/usr/ports/MOVED and
/usr/ports/CHANGES as well as
/usr/ports/UPDATING).
[*]Don't be afraid to make mistakes, but if you do also don't be afraid to admit you made one. Of course you shouldn't go with the "let's try everything, oops it broke; sorry!" kind of routine. But if you really dive into something you'll know if you're making an educated guess or simply doing that which you know will work (and also why).
[*]Try solving problems yourself without turning to pre-made solutions. You may reinvent the wheel, but you'll sure know more about the way it works.
[/LIST]
Last but most certainly not least; try to have some fun doing all this. If you can have fun while pursuing this stuff then I think you'll have that one thing which allows you to go that extra mile.
pff, turned out into quite the story. I hope you can make something of this but more so that you can put this to some use.