Yeah, its something interesting for sure. But I take it as an opportunity to network as well as getting practice in troubleshooting/debugging software. Obviously time is a consideration and not all deserve it. I like to do a favor for a favor, for example someone may be able to help me out with something when I need it, and it ends up working out.
And yeah, so far straight A’s, but you’re right. I could still be using my time wiser to perhaps get more out of my education.
That is very true. I am not hyper focused on Linux or what ever the technology may be. I just like to use stuff that works and also works the way I want it to work, and can anyone blame me for that?
How do you like that? It sounds like an interesting job, and I have no problem with Windows, its just not my go to preference. I do work with it when it makes sense to.
I don’t put myself down, just a bit of imposter syndrome as I am more or less self taught and I am able to figure stuff out by reading and reasoning stuff out. It just doesn’t feel like I know what I am doing, but people reassure me that I am fine. But yes! being honest goes a long way, and I don’t know everything, but sometimes pushing yourself in some categories can help someone grow in what ever topic it may be.
As for this, I’ve been getting better with planning stuff out or just rejecting people when it makes sense. Obviously I point people in the right direction if needed, but sometimes it can’t be helped and I can’t do anything.
But through out all of this, I have made a decent amount of colleagues and friends which is pretty cool.
Thanks for the advice!
Definitely.
“i’ve not had to deal with this issue before” doesn’t give them any premature expectations that you will fix it…
Oh awesome, so there’s a name for it! I end up doing this to myself all the time, from scripting to build docs to project documents. Works pretty nice. Only piece you need to add is shaping your method of conversation for the audience you’re speaking to
Not trying to pin any blame on anyone.
My point was that its easy to think of “end users” as “dumb” because they don’t know (and don’t care to know, in detail) what you do, but this is an extremely hazardous attitude to fall into. They have their own area(s) of expertise and those may actually be what the business values more.
If you’re a platform guy in 2020, you better make sure you have some other skills because the platform is going cloud and the low level details are being maintained by a smaller and smaller subset of tech people.
The guys bringing in the dollars are the guys the business will look after. If you aren’t in productivity you are an expense to be culled if possible…
IT’s role these days is to bring suggestions and changes that are going to save expense, enable higher profitability either through more effective man-hours or additional services, regulatory compliance, and/or mitigating costly downtime and missed opportunity cost from services being down. It’s all for the business, if you can’t make your case that spending money on your department is worth it, they’ll gut it as much as they’re able to
Side note: Can’t wait til I can spend some time on really looking into docker and kubernetes. Containers are awesome 
It is easy, I’ve had those thoughts before, as I am sure many others have at some point as well. I do realize though that not everyone has the same interests or even the same types of skills, but that doesn’t mean they are dumb, its just something they don’t at the expense of other knowledge.
I am not entirely a platform guy, but you make good point. I also hold other skills in technology/software and I have been told by a few that I should look into DevOps related topics as it might be a good fit. Not sure if that is me yet, but its a decent place to start looking.
If that time is empty for them to take; ensure that it is full, then you won’t freely give it away.
If you were a plumber and fixed a friends faucet, or the neighbours toilet there is a cultural protocol for a token gift ie. 6-pack or what have you.
For computers - there is none.
I am braking my own rule. Goodbye
I’ve been the go to guy on just about every OS since commodore 64 days. In the beginning I was quite eager to help people, this has stopped now. Now it’s quite simple, if people are willing to learn and listen, I love to share. If not, they can use Google. I’ve spent so many hours solving problems for people, that only wanted a solution, that I’d rather use this time working on my own stuff.
I do from time to time reinstall people’s computers and such, but I spend zero time backing up their crap or optimize their system. Life’s too short for this.
I have it like this with everything really. I don’t understand why people hire someone to put up a drywall, weld on a car or install a faucet. Try and try again, mostly things are quite straightforward, only thing required is that people apply themselves.
This really never goes away. Even among my programmer friends who know how to use GNU/Linux, I’m the only one who truly takes time to understand it. Like I read man pages for fun But that label can easily spread to just “The nerdy tech guy”, which is fair.
Case and point. I was out at a Chinese restaurant with my programmer friends, and one of their registers was acting up, so the cashier asked if anybody in the restaurant knew anything about computers, and one of my friends went to help him. Once he saw that he didn’t know what the problem was, he asked me to come over. The whole time I was thinking, “I don’t know anything about POS systems, why are they asking me?” Then I get over there and see that the Windows boot message was complaining about failed SMART Tests. I told them their hard drive was failing or dead, and they asked me what a hard drive was and how to fix it. I didn’t feel super comfortable with corporate liability stuff, so I told him to just tell their IT support people that they had a failing hard drive.
And I still had to pay for my Kung Pao Chicken…
TL;DR: You’re the guy now so as others mentioned, please keep a healthy time balance, learn all you can, and be comfortable saying no to people.
That’s the sort of attitude I typically like to take. Though I should be more discerning as there is a lot of people that are willing to listen than I should be dealing with. Hence this post.
I totally agree with you on this, if there is something that I can do personally with out needing a special skill or tool that I don’t already have, I am more than willing to do it myself. I just wish more people had that sort of attitude.
Yeah, I tend to be the same way with the understanding aspect of it. There is always more to learn after all. Being labeled the “nerdy tech guy” is how I get labeled at my work, but that is totally understandable as you said.
Interesting to hear about your Chinese POS situation though, but I would probably do the same thing in that sort of situation.
Thanks for the reminder, I am just happy to hear that I’m not the only one in this situation from time to time.
I would like to thank everyone so far that has shared their thoughts and opinions, I really appreciate it! It is interesting but reassuring to hear that my situation is a relatable experience with people in this group.
I think I have a decent idea of how to deal with my time management a bit better thanks to the commentary given, and it will probably be a life long experience in its own way.
On that note, I am gonna mark this post as solved though I am not sure if this is really a solvable in the technical sense.
Of course, if there is any other commentary or thoughts, please share. I am also available for a Direct Message if anyone wants to just chat.
Been there, done that.
Every question you get asked is an opportunity for you to accumulate knowledge and wisdom. Questions are a driver for your personal/professional development. Invite them at every opportunity. Learn to love them even if they take up precious time.
If you are even remotely sociable, and keep in touch with folks, then help them as much as you can. At your age you never know what your friends will end up doing with their lives. Example: I helped a random female uni student out with word-processing questions in the early 90s. A quarter of a century later… she is custom-crafting jewellery for my wife for free. Her husband is a retired mechanic with ~50 years of experience under his belt, and now my go-to guy for mechanical questions. It all started with “how does ‘publish and subscribe’ work in Microsoft Word?”
Knowing a lot of things about a lot of platforms makes you care less about the peculiarities/idiosyncrasies of each of them. You end up with the confidence of being able to sit down at any computer with any operating system knowing that you’ll be able to work ‘it’ out — whatever ‘it’ may be. You no longer care about the juvenile, semi-religious rantings of platform zealots. You head ends up in the ‘right tool for the job’ mental space, and that flexibility lets you go places that platform-specific technologists can’t go.
Performing ‘magic’ for others is fun.
For me, school was extremely discouraging. I sought, and still seek, understanding of anything I stumble upon. With understanding you can solve a problem by approaching it head on based on what might be right. School teaches you answers for questions someone else asked, to which you have no relation. Over time, understanding accumulates, and you start seeing patterns in things that have no apparent relation.
Level1 has some good points, can’t disagree with any of them. It is a choice, with a considerable price. There’s also the opposite approach. Can go on without helping others and just do your own thing on your own terms in your own time. Some would say it’s lonely and hard. I’d say it’s peaceful and full of interesting things, drama free. I realized I wanted to live like this, when I the n’th time felt like I pissed away a day, doing something with someone else, realizing the only reason I was there, was because people couldn’t be bothered applying themselves or wanted company while doing something.
I chose to not be part of conversations, as soon as it hits the point where they stop listening and only think about their answer or it hits the ‘zealot’ stage, where it switches to who’s right or wrong. Can’t be bothered with the bickering anymore.
On another note, there’s a balance to saying no to people. They ask you, because they to some degree look up to you. With continuous rejection, they will leave you alone for good, this could be a loss, like level1 says, you don’t know what they might end up doing.
I guess what my ramblings lead to, do what you believe is the right thing to do, accept the outcome and move forward. At the end of the day, you’re making decisions for your own life, based on your morality, so whatever happens, will be based on your own decisions. Want to help, help. Don’t want to help, don’t. It’s as simple as that.
@level1
@hem
Both of you guys, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Honestly, its just a matter making choices and accepting the out comes from it in the end. Personally I do think a healthy balance of being the helpful person, but also knowing when to say no is not just a sign of experience, but wisdom in its own rite.
Thanks for both your insights, they are something really to consider, as it is my own life after all and I just want to make the best possible choices while I can
I feel that. As a second year student at my own university I understand that feeling all of the time. One guy in my CS class today asked me how I learned Linux… that was really tough to explain because now I just do it. And also people in my CPP class don’t understand why I’d rather use the cmdline instead of the GUI that the class uses: DevC++. Our professor is a FreeBSD guy, so he doesn’t like DevC++ so often he’ll go on what is under the hood of DevC++ (GCC and GDB for the record). This helps because it also gives him an opportunity to help me out too xDD.
Build blog of solutions to all these problems. When repeat question comes in, email them a link to the answer.
Do this for long enough, you’ll build up a pretty big collection of Linux documentation. Then, put it on your resume and show how big brained you are to potential employers.
Make sure to host blog yourself and do something over the top like run it on Kubernetes in AWS just to show how awesome you are.
When you interview as DevOps Engineer and they ask - “prove you know linux,” just give them the URL and explain how you automated deployment using Helm Charts and stuff.
You’re an instant 6 figure hire out of college.
You make your way in this world, don’t be an asshole, just capitalize on your strengths.
Good luck!
cotton
This scenario rolls over into the corporate world as well. I’ve (at times) been both the guy looking for only the solution and the guy looking for help learning depending on the situation and subject matter.
I learned at one point (from a tech who was vastly more experienced than me) just how lazy I was being by asking him questions instead of doing my own work, when he abruptly stopped answering me. He was kind of rude about it which pissed me off… at first. Then I started reading his scripts and following his work directly. Ultimately I learned what he already knew and more importantly HOW he did what he did. We became trusted colleagues over the years.
In summary it’s fine to help someone here and there when they are trying to learn, but you shouldn’t enable laziness if they become habitual in leaning on you for their work. My tactic is to turn their questions into questions they have to then go research to get to the answer, even if I know the answer off the top of my head.
Good example.
Was he actually rude, or were you just miffed because he didn’t want to give you the answer? Reason I ask, often when I was called arrogant, asshole, twat and the like, I merely told them to read a book, find someone else to solve their problems or just go away. I’m rarely being intentionally rude, I just prefer to be direct.