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I was lost, literally, hitchhiking across the Australian outback when this article was published. Going home felt scary because I was afraid to be alone with no

by olowe 9mo ago

I was lost, literally, hitchhiking across the Australian outback when this article was published. Going home felt scary because I was afraid to be alone with no one else sharing my interests. Travelling made life enjoyable again because just surviving felt like an achievement. But I felt so, so isolated (again, literally!) from modern society. I wanted to find out why I was so deeply interested in computers but not in “tech”. They must work somehow… why did my iPhone (sold that) feel similar to my PC (sold that too) but only one is called a computer? This article framed things in a way that shook me out of a physically dangerous, homeless, jobless rut. It was all code. And I could learn it if I had the time. Perhaps it was the way it was written; I couldn’t believe intrigue and passion of computing could be weaved together like this. But there it was. I did make it home eventually. Fortunately the first 2000km lift back from western Australia to the eastern states with a crystal meth addict on the run from the police didn’t end violently. A few weeks back in Sydney with family some Linux nerds found me working as a receptionist answering phones and scanning paper records in at a failing medical practice. They got me doing desktop Windows and Linux server support. I’m an official software engineer now. I guess I should print this article out to show to my kids!

adityaathalye 9mo ago
This story is "best comments" material. It would be even if it were a fabulist tale. Thanks for sharing!
- olowe 9mo ago
  Haha thanks for saying that. It’s real! It’s relatively easy to get into the middle of nowhere in Australia after all ;) Actually still haven’t published my journal scribblings on my blog 10 years on..
bossyTeacher 9mo ago
>some Linux nerds found me working as a receptionist answering phones and scanning paper records in at a failing medical practice. They got me doing desktop Windows and Linux server support. I’m an official software engineer now There is a gap between receptionist and official software engineer. Please, give us more details about your journey and what happened in between
- wavemode 9mo ago
  > There is a gap between receptionist and official software engineer. At many companies (especially old, stodgy companies) this gap is artificial. The day you get asked "hey, I've got some data .... and I need ..." and you successfully solve the person's problem, is the day you become the office's live-in software engineer. That person you helped will be back, and they will bring friends. The rest after that is just job title shuffling.
  - bossyTeacher 9mo ago
    Not sure what country you live in, but where I live, a receptionist doesn't have access to any data processing tools that are not within the realm of a receptionist, and therefore this mobility does not happen. The receptionist ends up redirect the query to someone who has access to the relevant systems. What sort of companies are those were receptionists have access to tools beyond their role? and why are people approaching the receptionists asking for data queries? Like having to run a script on that data when your machine doesn't have the permissions to run arbitrary software without permission from the IT team
    - piperswe 9mo ago
      In a small business, the receptionist may be responsible for inputting much of that data in the first place, and it may just live on the receptionist's computer.
      - cestith 9mo ago
        In fact in some companies outside of tech proper with smaller headcount and less technically minded management, by the time the boss decides to look into systems like HRIS, CRM, ERM, and such the receptionist, office manager, and/or the interns already have about 837 Excel macros doing most of that work.
    - wavemode 9mo ago
      You're still thinking too much in a "tech company" mindset. At the kind of company I'm talking about, concepts like "access" and "permissions" are irrelevant. Most of the company's employees barely know how a computer works. You seemed vaguely tech savvy, so someone asked you for help and emailed you a file containing the data (or perhaps just handed you a laptop and turned you loose). The rest is history. It's a modern invention that companies have separate software engineering orgs, software engineering roadmaps, software engineering managers. At older companies, a software developer is just another businessperson in a cubicle. Your manager probably has an English degree.

by olowe 9mo ago

adityaathalye 9mo ago

This story is "best comments" material. It would be even if it were a fabulist tale. Thanks for sharing!

olowe 9mo ago
Haha thanks for saying that. It’s real! It’s relatively easy to get into the middle of nowhere in Australia after all ;) Actually still haven’t published my journal scribblings on my blog 10 years on..

bossyTeacher 9mo ago

>some Linux nerds found me working as a receptionist answering phones and scanning paper records in at a failing medical practice. They got me doing desktop Windows and Linux server support. I’m an official software engineer now There is a gap between receptionist and official software engineer. Please, give us more details about your journey and what happened in between

wavemode 9mo ago
> There is a gap between receptionist and official software engineer. At many companies (especially old, stodgy companies) this gap is artificial. The day you get asked "hey, I've got some data .... and I need ..." and you successfully solve the person's problem, is the day you become the office's live-in software engineer. That person you helped will be back, and they will bring friends. The rest after that is just job title shuffling.
- bossyTeacher 9mo ago
  Not sure what country you live in, but where I live, a receptionist doesn't have access to any data processing tools that are not within the realm of a receptionist, and therefore this mobility does not happen. The receptionist ends up redirect the query to someone who has access to the relevant systems. What sort of companies are those were receptionists have access to tools beyond their role? and why are people approaching the receptionists asking for data queries? Like having to run a script on that data when your machine doesn't have the permissions to run arbitrary software without permission from the IT team
  - piperswe 9mo ago
    In a small business, the receptionist may be responsible for inputting much of that data in the first place, and it may just live on the receptionist's computer.
    - cestith 9mo ago
      In fact in some companies outside of tech proper with smaller headcount and less technically minded management, by the time the boss decides to look into systems like HRIS, CRM, ERM, and such the receptionist, office manager, and/or the interns already have about 837 Excel macros doing most of that work.
  - wavemode 9mo ago
    You're still thinking too much in a "tech company" mindset. At the kind of company I'm talking about, concepts like "access" and "permissions" are irrelevant. Most of the company's employees barely know how a computer works. You seemed vaguely tech savvy, so someone asked you for help and emailed you a file containing the data (or perhaps just handed you a laptop and turned you loose). The rest is history. It's a modern invention that companies have separate software engineering orgs, software engineering roadmaps, software engineering managers. At older companies, a software developer is just another businessperson in a cubicle. Your manager probably has an English degree.