How tinkering in middle school helps me as a Data Engineer today

Turning Time 'Wasted' into an Investment in Your Future Self

So here’s a low-key motivational story.

It was late 2006, maybe early 2007, and I was in middle school, very interested in computers. I had just successfully convinced my mom to let me keep my computer on for five full days so I could download openSUSE 🐧 Linux (which was spread across multiple ISO files).

Even five days were a big win since my ISP was offering 64 kbit/s for external sites but up to 256 kbit/s for websites in our country 🇲🇩

. So, I found a local mirror and started downloading. Anyway, it turned out openSUSE was too complex for me.

Then, I read that Ubuntu was the newbie-friendly one. Back in the day, there was a service called ShipIt, which sent free Ubuntu copies by mail. So here I am at my local post office in a small 🇲🇩 Moldovan town - they even asked me to open the package so they could check what was inside.

One of the first things I did after installing it? Figuring out how to log in to root automatically without entering the password. No need to enter the long and secure password (inspired by cartoon heroes) every time I needed to sudo apt-get install a package, I thought. I even deleted the other user so the computer would run smoother. 😁

It took me a while, but I was so happy with myself. I spent the next year tinkering and trying to install Windows games on 🐧 Linux. Then I forgot about the penguin altogether for the next 10 years until I became a data engineer.

But some of the things I learned back in the day, a good 18 years ago, like terminal basics and, more importantly, the patience to tinker with tech stuff until I got it done, have always stayed with me.

A couple of takeaways:
🔹 Never give up: keep trying until you get it done.
🔹 Don't waste your effort: focus on what you want to achieve.
🔹 Iterate fast: don't get stuck in minutiae (yes, it's my own word); try, fail, try another approach.
🔹 Learning is like investing: what you put in today will help you down the road.
🔹 Getting smart takes time: you will inevitably do dumb things like I did with the root user (which is not safe; the ⚠️ warnings are there for a reason), but you will come to know better.