1
First, My Story.
24 January 2012
I've been meaning to start and maintin a blog for recording my endeavors in everything computer science, this seems like a perfect place to do so. When I was younger I was always very envious of those that had knowledge about computers as intimately as hackers did, I never considered whether or not I could be like that, I just wished I could. I thought in order to be considered a hacker one has to have started early on and end up like one of those kid geniuses, I was a teenager with low self-esteem, what do you expect? Nevertheless, I was still obsessed with computers and games at that point, I was still a computer geek to a degree and the only computer savvy person on boths sides of the family (big families). I built my first desktop during my senior year, it was poorly executed but I can really appreciate it now.
I signed up for the Navy shortly after my 18th birthday on somewhat of a whim. My interest in computer science was shelved at that point, I was just too busy to put much attention to it. I took the job of a gas turbine engineer, went to basic, A-school, and then off to Japan.
Some 3-4 years into my service I was working in the IT department of a Naval hospital (Yokosuka, Japan), I had been put on limited duty(medical standby/recovery time) a year or so earlier, different story. It was just by chance that I ended up working in the IT dept specifically, I was fixing stuff at my first job(records), they noticed, and sent me to the helpdesk. My time in the IM/IT department of that hospital is another different story in itself so I won't delve; I studied and got A+, Network+, and Security+ certified near the end. I was medically separated by the start of my 6th year of enlistment, they couldn't fix what problems I had so they sent me home with some money, typical government operations. Shortly before I was separated I realized I could be a hacker if I damn well pleased, so when I got home I hit the ground running.
I did a lot of research into hacker philosophy and culture before actually working to achieve hackerdom, the most important thing in my mind at the time was to earn respect from other respected hackers. Most of all, I wanted to know things, I love to learn, and I love to think. People around me have always said I was bright, sharp, smart, what have you, however, I was a C student all throughout school and still am to this day as I work on my associates. I don't know if I'm smart but what I do know is that I have seen many a dumb person in my day, I've been thusly convinced that common sense doesn't actually exist.
So in the first few months of striving to becoming a hacker I was so overwhelmed by what I didn't know I literally had to stop Googling, at least until I got organized. Inevitably I was felt discouraged and wondered how I could ever know as much as all these gods on the internet. Still, I was bloodthirsty for knowledge, everything about computer science was(and still is, of course) the most awesome and intriguing thing ever in the history of history. Not quite true, I love physics though I've never taken a physics class, I just read a lot; I also enjoy philosophy, any good reading, reading is epic. But I digress, after a lengthy self-debate I came to the conclusion that I was doing it wrong, I was in the wrong mindset and my studies would suffer if I continued. I went back in and organized things in a way that made sense to me educationally, I listened to podcasts every day and read until my brain would mutiny.
My take on knowledge is that until I genuinely understand something I will not really know it. Understanding is hard, in a way it can slow you down, but it is the key to gaining knowledge. I have strong fundamental understanding of most levels in computer science but the content I study is becoming more advanced every day. I don't really have desire to earn the 'hacker' label anymore, I understand now it isn't about that. A year has passed since I got home from Japan and began studying seriously, now it's more of a lifestyle than it is a study. I think the last year wasn't really spent learning how to hack, instead it was spent learning how to learn.
Thanks for reading.
I signed up for the Navy shortly after my 18th birthday on somewhat of a whim. My interest in computer science was shelved at that point, I was just too busy to put much attention to it. I took the job of a gas turbine engineer, went to basic, A-school, and then off to Japan.
Some 3-4 years into my service I was working in the IT department of a Naval hospital (Yokosuka, Japan), I had been put on limited duty(medical standby/recovery time) a year or so earlier, different story. It was just by chance that I ended up working in the IT dept specifically, I was fixing stuff at my first job(records), they noticed, and sent me to the helpdesk. My time in the IM/IT department of that hospital is another different story in itself so I won't delve; I studied and got A+, Network+, and Security+ certified near the end. I was medically separated by the start of my 6th year of enlistment, they couldn't fix what problems I had so they sent me home with some money, typical government operations. Shortly before I was separated I realized I could be a hacker if I damn well pleased, so when I got home I hit the ground running.
I did a lot of research into hacker philosophy and culture before actually working to achieve hackerdom, the most important thing in my mind at the time was to earn respect from other respected hackers. Most of all, I wanted to know things, I love to learn, and I love to think. People around me have always said I was bright, sharp, smart, what have you, however, I was a C student all throughout school and still am to this day as I work on my associates. I don't know if I'm smart but what I do know is that I have seen many a dumb person in my day, I've been thusly convinced that common sense doesn't actually exist.
So in the first few months of striving to becoming a hacker I was so overwhelmed by what I didn't know I literally had to stop Googling, at least until I got organized. Inevitably I was felt discouraged and wondered how I could ever know as much as all these gods on the internet. Still, I was bloodthirsty for knowledge, everything about computer science was(and still is, of course) the most awesome and intriguing thing ever in the history of history. Not quite true, I love physics though I've never taken a physics class, I just read a lot; I also enjoy philosophy, any good reading, reading is epic. But I digress, after a lengthy self-debate I came to the conclusion that I was doing it wrong, I was in the wrong mindset and my studies would suffer if I continued. I went back in and organized things in a way that made sense to me educationally, I listened to podcasts every day and read until my brain would mutiny.
My take on knowledge is that until I genuinely understand something I will not really know it. Understanding is hard, in a way it can slow you down, but it is the key to gaining knowledge. I have strong fundamental understanding of most levels in computer science but the content I study is becoming more advanced every day. I don't really have desire to earn the 'hacker' label anymore, I understand now it isn't about that. A year has passed since I got home from Japan and began studying seriously, now it's more of a lifestyle than it is a study. I think the last year wasn't really spent learning how to hack, instead it was spent learning how to learn.
Thanks for reading.
