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 — 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.