Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 85 posts

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#21

Post by BossingAround »

snori74 wrote: post #8
accidentalrebel wrote: post #4

Seems very interesting. I checked out the site and I want to find out why lessons need to be dished out weekly via Reddit. I'm curious. What is the rationale/history behind this? And why Reddit? When I learn a new subject I prefer having everything available so I could go through it at my own pace. I understand people learn differently so I wonder if this kind of approach works well for other people who learn differe…

Although I say repeatedly that each 'lesson' has about two hours work in it I worry that were lessons available, students will just skim though the whole lot "in one go". I also believe that 'forcing' students to ssh in daily for a month gets a bit of muscle-memory working, and proves that they have the required stickability. (The initial paid version reported such things back to their employer!) In fact, all lessons…

> I worry that were lessons available, students will just skim though the whole lot "in one go".

I think this is a common pitfall of a number of beginner courses. Personally, I view it as kind of an arrogance of "I know better what you need than you do".

As a user, I think you have no say in how I consume any content.

> The initial paid version reported such things back to their employer!

The employer has no right to know anything about me other than what I do during my 8h of paid time. I can share whatever I want of course, but a feature like this seems like it supports an unhealthy work relationship.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#22

Post by alekq »

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner.

Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development, but actually Linux sysadmin might be more appropriate for me.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#23

Post by onenite »

alekq wrote: post #22

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner. Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development…

Not too late. Professional experience in anything technical/analytical/complex would keep your mind adaptive enough to deal with computer systems and work effectively with others.

On that note, programmers used to consist of mathematicians, engineers, and scientists, until there was a growing shortage of programmers, at which point project managers, accountants, and other comparable professionals trained to become programmers. [1]

1. The Future of Programming - Uncle Bob Martin https://youtu.be/BHnMItX2hEQ

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#24

Post by wilsonrocks »

alekq wrote: post #22

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner. Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development…

I switched from being a math teacher and union official to web developer at 35 and have loved it!

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#25

Post by lxe »

alekq wrote: post #22

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner. Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development…

Same answer as "is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 22?"

Make sure it's a career in something you actually like and can foresee to some degree of confidence that you can continue being interested in, and honing your skill in, for a while.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#26

Post by BBergdahl »

alekq wrote: post #22

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner. Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development…

I switched to IT at 40. Doable. But Swede so a lot of options like paid paternity leave, tuition free university and so on made it easier.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#28

Post by snori74 »

BossingAround wrote: post #21
snori74 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I say repeatedly that each 'lesson' has about two hours work in it I worry that were lessons available, students will just skim though the whole lot "in one go". I also believe that 'forcing' students to ssh in daily for a month gets a bit of muscle-memory working, and proves that they have the required stickability. (The initial paid version reported such things back to their employer!) In fact, all lessons…

> I worry that were lessons available, students will just skim though the whole lot "in one go". I think this is a common pitfall of a number of beginner courses. Personally, I view it as kind of an arrogance of "I know better what you need than you do". As a user, I think you have no say in how I consume any content. > The initial paid version reported such things back to their employer! The employer has no right to…

Well in a sense, I do "know better". There is a real benefit to setting up a VPS "fully exposed to the Internet (another thing that some struggle with); A real benefit to taking a day to investigate each day's lesson; A real benefit to getting into the habit of ssh-ing daily.

But hey, having run this for a long while, I'm well aware people are coming from all sorts of backgrounds, having all sorts of crazy things going on in their lives etc - so however they do it is fine by me.

So, those that simply read it through - OK. Those that run it in a VM on their laptop - OK.

Peace,

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#29

Post by pletnes »

alekq wrote: post #22

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner. Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development…

I worked in non-it but programming-is-useful roles until age 35. Now I’m a sw developer. I don’t particularly recommend for or against as it’s a personal choice after all. But feasible, yes absolutely.

Re: Show HN: Linux sysadmin course, eight years on

#30

Post by peter_retief »

alekq wrote: post #22

Thank you very much for this! I am sorry that I did not know about it sooner. Anyway the question for HN - is it too "late" for a person to consider career change in 33? To clarify, I am not in IT business, my formal education (and job) is in business administration, however with recent and important changes in my private and work life, I am considering to bite the bullet. Initially, I considered back-end development…

If you do some formal training for a few months you should be fine. If possible get someone to sponsor you.
Post reply on HN