Reading 09: Birth of a Nerd OS

I guess I can see a couple similarities between me and Linus. Like him, I was always one of the stronger math students in my class, and people would go to me for help from time to time (though probably not as often as him). Like him, I was also not particularly fond of playing sports, and like him, I had a particular fondness of video games. However, I think that’s about where the similarities end. I absolutely was not as driven as he was to understanding how things work. He was in love with playing and experimenting with computers and their programs at an early age (like the SARA IS THE BEST loop), whereas the boot up screen of Windows XP freaked me out just looking at it. The difference, in my opinion, is that he was lucky to have been exposed to something so new and interesting to him at such an early age (and have people who wanted him to be interested in them). His grandfather wanted him to be interested in math, so he had Linus help him code BASIC at an early age. The key here is the person to encourage and motivate you. To see just how important I think that is, here’s a short aside about my life. I’ve played flute since the 6th grade. I liked it, but it was just okay for me when I was younger. I had lessons, but no one really pushed me that hard to keep on doing this. It wasn’t until halfway through high school when I got a new flute teacher that I felt really pushed, encouraged, and inspired to explore this instrument way more. Now, I can’t imagine my life without the flute. Obviously, there are people who just get interested in things by their own accord, but I have doubts that Linus would have been a big computer genius anyways had he not been encouraged by his grandfather.

I do find Linus’ life interesting. However, I don’t think it’s because I’m necessarily inspired by him. More than anything, I think I’m just fascinated by the origins of Linux and the circumstances of his life and mind that led to its creation. While I’m not inspired really, I don’t think it’s irrelevant. I think there’s merit in learning about the lives and minds of those who are so pivotal to our industry. I think I’m just too different from someone like Linus. Someone like Linus will work with their creative itches and stick with them to keep exploring. I hardly ever get that invested in an endeavor just for fun. Honestly, the most invested I’ve ever really gotten in a problem solving endeavor (fueled solely by my own curiosity) was learning how RNG abuse worked in Pokemon HeartGold and taking advantage of it to get “shiny” Pokemon. I spent several hours figuring out how to easily get palette swapped pixel art in a very specific game. Meanwhile, I tried learning LUA in middle school to program Roblox games (and quit shortly after I realized I really didn’t understand what a function was) and tried learning Tagalog so I could speak it with my parents (but gave up after only a few units of Rosetta Stone). Sure, I wish I carried through with those itches other than that useless Pokemon one, but ultimately I’m not that unhappy with not being able to do those things at the time. I really admire Linus because he was able to scratch his itch and let his successes fuel more questions and itches that kept compounding until he did something great. However, the reason I’m not inspired is because while I admire that about him, I don’t find that it motivates me to do any sort of exploring just for fun. I wish I could be motivated by something to explore as much as he was motivated by Unix and computers to explore, but alas, I don’t think that’s really happened yet.

I’ll be honest. I don’t really care what my “story” is that much. It doesn’t have to be interesting. I don’t have to do something ground breaking. The only thing I really care about is that I’m not thought of as a huge jerk (looking at you Zuckerberg and Jobs). I guess in that sense, my story just needs to be one that my parents aren’t ashamed of.