Change is the only constant…
I’m not sure where I get this ability to put myself into situations that really test me, but I’m quite good at doing it over the course of my career in the technology field. I think it’s actually two sides of me at war with each other. I actually have a tendency to be quite a lazy person sometimes, and will procrastinate when given the opportunity. That’s my subconscious running the show and just doing what seems easy…but I think I battle that by throwing myself “into the fire” to force myself to be better at what I do and learn more.
Lots of quotes come to mind when I think about what I just dove into this week:
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.”
“The impossible is often the untried.”
“Know your limits, but never stop trying to exceed them.”
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
Leaving the Windows and the VMware ESX world behind to take on new challenges is not an easy choice to make.
“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”
I was even asked on my interview if I’m going to miss the Windows/ESX world that I’ve become so used to and comfortable with? Of course I am. It’s been “home” for me for a long time.
I’ve decided to challenge myself by leaving the comforts of the Windows world, and jump head-first into the harshness of the command-line world of a Unix Systems Engineer. For a long time I’ve been a very hybrid-OS type of guy. I have used most major operating systems professionally at one time or another…but the Unix arena is one I haven’t really put a scratch in yet.
Why do I use the word “harsh” to describe Unix and the command line? How else does any (former) Windows engineer describe Unix? Think about it, how many Windows GUI-oriented people do you know that have tried Linux, only to decide that it’s “too hard to work with”, or “I couldn’t make it work because it was too much of a pain in the neck to setup”, or “it’s just so much easier in Windows to point and click..and BOOM, it works!”
There’s really nothing wrong with that. It’s a preference. But, for most Windows folks that’s the end of it and they never give it another look. Not for me. I’m the weird one here. I’m the one that looks at something like that, and runs faster towards it instead of away from it. It’s a challenge. It’s the whole “road less traveled” thing for me.
I’ve had my eye on the Unix arena for quite a while though. I think going back as far as 1999-ish I’ve always wanted to get more involved in this intriguing operating system. There’s an odd elegance to the simple complexities of it.
“The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle.”
I truly believe that you can’t know for sure if you can do something unless you make the decision to act on it, put effort into it, fail at it, learn from your mistakes and keep moving forward. Because if you’re not moving forward, then you’re doing one of two other things: standing still, or falling behind.
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