Quiet Frontier

Life, Linux and Resilience

Video (MM:SS): Tehcnology can have a profound impact on us in positive and negative ways. This short reflection is about technology, adaptation, and resilience at the intersection of life and Linux. Watch the video above, and if it resonates, consider subscribing for more Quiet Frontier reflections.

Transcript

00:00:21 When my mom’s dementia got worse, life

00:00:24 started to feel completely overwhelming to

00:00:28 me. There were days when everything seemed

00:00:32 to be spinning out of control. Schedules

00:00:34 were disrupted. Everything in general got

00:00:38 disrupted. And life was just out of

00:00:41 control. And during that time, I found

00:00:45 myself turning to something that might

00:00:47 seem a little bit odd. But it was Linux

00:00:50 and the world of open source software in

00:00:54 general. For me, it wasn’t really about

00:00:58 learning a new system or learning a new

00:01:01 operating system. It was about finding one

00:01:04 place where I could still break things and

00:01:07 rebuild them and feel some sense of

00:01:10 control or a sense of agency. So, I

00:01:15 started my journey with Linux Mint. A lot

00:01:18 of people recommend Mint as a starting

00:01:21 point because it’s stable and it’s very

00:01:23 user-friendly. And it’s a great

00:01:25 recommendation because it is a really good

00:01:27 operating system. And especially for

00:01:29 somebody who’s just kind of dipping their

00:01:31 toes into the world of Linux. Linux. So,

00:01:37 in spite of that, my first installations

00:01:41 of Mint were incredibly clumsy. I’d always

00:01:46 manage to mess around with things until it

00:01:49 just wasn’t working the way I wanted it

00:01:51 to. So, I’d uninstall it. Then I’d

00:01:54 reinstall it. And I did that three or four

00:01:56 times. But after a month or two, I finally

00:01:59 got it right. Mint had become my everyday

00:02:03 operating system. Then I decided, you know

00:02:07 what, I need a media server. So, it’s

00:02:10 something simple to make it easy to watch

00:02:12 movies and listen to music at home. So,

00:02:15 enter OpenMediaVault. I broke

00:02:18 OpenMediaVault so many times that I lost

00:02:22 count. I installed it. Reinstalled it.

00:02:27 Reconfigured it. Started over. Installed

00:02:30 it again. Reinstalled. Reconfigured. And

00:02:33 rinse and repeat over and over again. At

00:02:36 first, it was incredibly frustrating. I

00:02:39 would mistype commands into the command

00:02:41 line. I’d run commands that shouldn’t be

00:02:44 run. Forget to run commands that were

00:02:48 needed. But then I started to notice

00:02:50 something. Every time I messed up, I

00:02:55 learned something new. None of the

00:02:57 mistakes were final. They were all just

00:03:00 steps in the learning process. And that’s

00:03:04 when it really hit me. The command line

00:03:06 isn’t really just about typing commands.

00:03:10 It mirrors resilience. You break things.

00:03:14 You learn. You rebuild. It’s iterative.

00:03:18 Just like life is iterative. So, some of

00:03:24 the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

00:03:25 First one, patience. You can’t rush the

00:03:28 process. Sometimes you just have to step

00:03:31 away before a solution to some problem

00:03:34 you’re experiencing is going to appear.

00:03:37 Human beings have this amazing capacity

00:03:40 for intuition. When we allow our

00:03:44 unconscious mind to become part of the

00:03:47 problem-solving process, we can sometimes

00:03:51 find answers and solutions that were

00:03:54 evading us otherwise. But you have to have

00:03:57 the patience to persevere through the

00:04:01 process and step away when you need to

00:04:04 step away. Otherwise, that intuitive

00:04:06 process will never be allowed to kick in.

00:04:10 The second thing I’ve learned is something

00:04:14 about agency or control. A lot of times we

00:04:18 think when we fail that we’ve lost

00:04:21 control. But that’s not really true. Even

00:04:23 when you mess up, you could always start

00:04:25 again. That’s not failure. That’s

00:04:28 empowerment. And finally, growth. This all

00:04:33 started as kind of a survival process for

00:04:36 me. I needed something that I could grab

00:04:38 onto that wasn’t elusive, that wasn’t

00:04:41 changing constantly, that gave me a sense

00:04:45 of control. But what happened along the

00:04:48 way is this became more about a personal

00:04:52 growth journey for me. I was learning

00:04:54 things. I was developing new skills. I was

00:04:56 taking on new tasks that I had never

00:04:59 considered before. So this really became

00:05:02 curiosity for its own sake, which has been

00:05:05 incredibly rewarding in and of itself. So

00:05:11 open source software, the world of Linux,

00:05:14 it’s really just a metaphor. It’s a

00:05:16 metaphor for freedom. It’s the freedom to

00:05:19 learn, the freedom to adapt, and the

00:05:22 freedom to rebuild. You’re never really

00:05:26 alone on the journey either. Someone else

00:05:29 has always broken the same thing that you

00:05:32 broke, messed up the same command that you

00:05:35 messed up, and there’s a community out

00:05:38 there that’s ready to help. The progress

00:05:42 we make, it’s not about never failing.

00:05:46 It’s not about perfection. It’s about

00:05:49 iterating. And that’s a lesson that goes

00:05:52 way beyond the technology itself. So I

00:05:57 started this journey about a year ago. And

00:06:00 looking back, I really wish I had taken

00:06:02 the time to document all of the steps that

00:06:05 I took along the way. I’ve learned a lot.

00:06:07 Not just about using the command line.

00:06:10 I’ve learned a lot about myself too, about

00:06:13 building that sense of agency and that

00:06:15 sense of resilience. Technology can be so

00:06:19 frustrating, but it can also be incredibly

00:06:22 empowering. And that’s what I really want

00:06:25 to focus on in this channel. Not another

00:06:27 how-to channel. There’s plenty of how-to

00:06:30 channels out there, and they’re produced

00:06:32 by knowledgeable people with far greater

00:06:35 skills than I possess. Instead, I’m going

00:06:38 to be focusing on resilience, empowerment,

00:06:42 and well-being in technology, in society,

00:06:47 and in life in general. So, please take a

00:06:53 moment to like and subscribe. And if

00:06:56 you’re interested in more content about

00:06:58 building resilience and empowerment and

00:07:01 well-being, check out the Quiet Frontier

00:07:04 website that I’ve linked in the

00:07:07 description. And thanks again so much for

00:07:10 watching. I really appreciate the time

00:07:12 you’ve taken to check out this video. And

00:07:15 I hope to see you in the next video. Until

00:07:17 then, take good care.