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If the author has “been playing with the web and code for years” and is still “wtf” on /usr/local/bin in $PATH it shows a lack of discipline and structure in th
by malux85 6y ago
If the author has “been playing with the web and code for years” and is still “wtf” on /usr/local/bin in $PATH it shows a lack of discipline and structure in their learning.
I see this in many in many of my apprentices - the desire for instant gratification and the lack of experience means they refuse to do anything that doesn’t immediately proceed them closer to their goal.
Here’s the thing with programming - you can’t run before you can walk.
Go read “Learn python the hard way”, do 1 lesson a day
Go do Linuxjourney - do 1 lesson a day
By lesson 8 you’ll know about /usr/local/bin and path, and packages, that’ll fix all of your gripes about not being able to install ruby, pip and node too.
And all of that is solved only after 8 days of disciplined learning. Sure it’s not immediately towards your goal but you need the lower level skills and knowledge first. And it’s only 8 days!
Stop trying to assemble a fully functional car with no understanding of the fundamentals and then getting frustrated that car assembly is difficult. Go and learn some electrical engineering, go and learn some metalworking, go and learn some mechanical engineering, then you may come back and attempt to assemble a car. You might fail the second time too, but each time you’ll get further.
Stop seeking that immediate gratification, the path to success is NEVER a straight line
- msh 6y agoImmediate gratification does have its purposes. It helped me a lot as a teenager in the late nineties that I could install borland delphi and very easily have a self contained windows app running without understanding too much, it gave me the confidence to go on and learn the lower level stuff.
- user-the-name 6y ago/usr/local/bin has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with programming. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. It is completely superfluous knowledge. It is only required because, as the author correctly points out, the tools we use are BAD. They are absolutely fucking AWFUL. /usr/local/bin is an implementation detail from an OS nobody has used for decades. It's still here because we refuse to fix these ridiculous things. Nobody should need to know this.
- kichimi 6y agoThe server you submitted your comment to uses this 'OS nobody has used for decades'. The OS you wrote this from, also uses this implementation detail.
- user-the-name 6y agoIt most definitely does NOT use that OS. That is a ridiculous claim.
- maweki 6y agoEvery OS, Windows as well, uses the concept of search paths, namespaces, and environmental variables.
- dijit 6y agoI think he's speaking about First Edition UNIX, and, yes, we don't use that operating system. We just use operating systems which implement concepts derived from there. So, technically correct, though the argument has little merit.
- user-the-name 6y agoThe point is, "/usr/local/bin" is an artifact that made sense on that system, and that system alone, but we started using it elsewhere, and not it is so firmly established we do not dare to change it, even though it is a completely arbitrary choice with no relevance to modern systems.
- bregma 6y ago> Stop trying to assemble a fully functional car with no understanding of the fundamentals and then getting frustrated that car assembly is difficult. Most of these people find driving hard. You have to put the liquid in the hole and turn the key and keep pressing the floor-thing and hold the circle thing all while looking out the window to make sure no one gets in your way and the car stays on the hard paths. What they really want is to just be able to jump in the back seat and state their destination then go back to chuckling at tik-toks and messaging friends until they're there. That's the kind of car assembly they want, complete with the commensurate salary and benefits. Is it really so much to ask to have that delivered to them?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kulig 6y agoAnd they'll sneer at people who actually know how to drive for being ridiculous nerds who take interest in such things. Ive been to college with these people. Their mindset is "Im so much better than you. If only this stupid computer would read my mind, I'd be making 10x what you make."
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cyrialize 6y agoThank you for mentioning Linux Journey[1]! I never heard about it before - it looks like a great resource. Another thing I want to add on - it looks like the author is lacking curiosity. I didn't have much discipline and structure in the beginning of my programming journey. In fact, I've been trying to add more discipline and structure to my learning now. When I started though, I had a TON of curiosity. I fiddled all the time with everything. I fiddled with settings in Windows XP to make my family's computer faster, I fiddled with my own laptop by installing Linux and trying out tons of programs, I fiddled with the code on my computer to make it do cool things on the command line, etc. I didn't have an end goal in mind - it was just something fun to do and I just wanted to answer all the questions in my head. Being curious drove me to learn, adding discipline and structure helps to fill in some gaps in my learning that my curiosity may have missed. [1]: https://linuxjourney.com/ https://linuxjourney.com/
- Shared404 6y agoIf you're looking for resources currently, Humble's got a Linux book bundle for the next 2-3 days that looks pretty good.
- robertlagrant 6y agoWhile I'm not a low code fan, I would say please don't read Learn Python the Hard Way. https://sopython.com/wiki/LPTHW_Complaints https://sopython.com/wiki/LPTHW_Complaints
- malux85 6y agoRather than just criticise, can you please suggest a better alternative? I am always looking for better tools and tutorials for the people I mentor, but LPTHW has been great, I have mentored 15 or so people so far from no coding to starting and running their own companies, and I have yet to find something better.