This blog is more so an inverted look into my process of learning than it is a ‘how to’ or ‘best practice’. For myself, repeating information aloud, or providing it in an instructional manner, when confident of its accuracy, helps reinforce the memory of that information. Indeed, asking questions when comprehension is lacking is an important part of this process. I have made the mistake, as I’m sure many others have, of reinforcing the wrong information and finding it difficult to realise so, and subsequently rectify it. This is something I aim to get better at preventing, or at the very least, identifying.
That’s enough chit-chat. This blog will cover my self- (can I call it that?), or at least, non-university educated journey from IT noob to IT…less-noob. I have enjoyed working with computers since the latter years of primary school (circa 2000). Before that, I enjoyed pulling electronics apart to see why they were magic. Think VCR’s and -shudders- TVs. Top tip: Don’t pull a TV apart and mess around with it’s internals while it is still plugged in and turned on. I only did that once. If only the rest of my education was that efficient.
I remember my first computer had a 222 MHz processor, 16(?)MB ED RAM a tiny HDD and barely any ability to play games. But it was mine, I’d paid for it out of my own money. It was a delicious little thing.
During high school, I did all the computer classes I could. Programming, computer studies, computer literacy, etc. I even spent every lunch break in the computer labs. That’s socially acceptable in the mid-2000’s, right? Anyway, I did pretty well at these subjects, except for the classes closer to the middle/end of the final year. That’s when I had mentally checked out, weighed down by what life awaited me on the other side of 12th grade.
In retrospect, I wish I had applied myself fully, or at least had the correct guidance to attempt to apply myself fully. But, therein lies the danger of hindsight: it’ll pull you in and prove difficult to free yourself from if you are feeble. I own the decisions I made then and I am now taking steps to lead myself to the job I wanted when I left school.
As to what that job is, I always imagined I’d work with the Government. In the Secrets Division. Working in dark rooms, fighting against the international threats. Now, at my current Level of Dumb (LOD™) I highly doubt I’d get to work as a paper boy within the government. Either way, that was the musing of a bored high school kid.
I feel like there is a daunting mountain of information for me to learn in my pursuit of mastering this subject, so I may as well get to it.
Also, I used to read every day as a kid, and wrote creatively. Yet, in the 10+ years since high school, I’ve probably read three books and my only creative writing consisted of typing emails and memos to work colleagues. RIP. So hopefully, this will allow me to get in touch with words again. I like me some words.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. — Albert Einstein
My Tech Genesis 