What I have found helps me get over these "I know what I SHOULD do..." humps? If I pick up a book or find a good source of information on the subject and start

What I have found helps me get over these "I know what I SHOULD do..." humps? If I pick up a book or find a good source of information on the subject and start reading it, I find that it lowers the barrier to entry for me just enough and starts filling my head with enough good ideas that I have to move forward. You might pick up a good Kernel beginners book (do you know C? If not, start there.) and just start reading it... thumb through it... start seeing some of the API calls and comitting them to memory so the next time you see them you think "Oh yea, I remember that from Chapter 1..." Don't worry about coding, which IDE to use, which build system to use, installing Ubuntu on your laptop or moving in with Linus... just get that book and start reading before you go to bed at night. It'll either break down the barrier to entry for you, or make you realize it isn't what you thought and you can focus on something else. Absolute worse case scenario? You learn a few cool tricks and put the book on your shelf to collect dust. No biggie. Might I suggest starting here? http://goo.gl/YBoJ0 http://goo.gl/YBoJ0