The flip side of the level of expertise being high was that the expected level of expertise was high. If you even found documentation showing how to do stuff it

The flip side of the level of expertise being high was that the expected level of expertise was high. If you even found documentation showing how to do stuff it would often be taken for granted that you knew you had to recompile your kernel after step 4 and update your PATH and all that. The ethos at the time was that you had to learn things the hard way, RTFM, and not spoon feed others who hadn't put in the work. If there's one thing I'm glad about on the new Internet, it's that there's a lot more effort given to reader friendly documentation. All of this is to say, kids these days have it easy!