Flakey Windows taught me this doctrine, and it has carried over to any OS that I use (mostly Linux). A directory with 'portable apps' was essential in Windows,

Flakey Windows taught me this doctrine, and it has carried over to any OS that I use (mostly Linux). A directory with 'portable apps' was essential in Windows, fortunately apt makes this a whole lot simpler :) 1. Find ways to automate setting up my env. Keep that instruction current. apt and chocolatey/ninite have made this far simpler than it used to be. 2. Keep data in directories that are auto-backupped. Concretely I have everything in 'shares', and these shares have survived various changes in tooling, buut their location and principle have stayed the same. Also helps organizing your files :) 3. Have short but precise instructions on how to setup new envs, wherever automation isn't possible or impractical. Has worked for me for decades now, and it means I'm good to go within an hour of (re)installing a fresh OS.