I've been using linux + gnu since I was about 14. I cargo-culted almost exclusively for the first 4 years of my using of linux. Things broke constantly. I would

I've been using linux + gnu since I was about 14. I cargo-culted almost exclusively for the first 4 years of my using of linux. Things broke constantly. I would install a new distro just to try out a different DE, not realizing that the differences between kubuntu and ubuntu could be exchanged with a simple apt-get command. Everything I ran in a shell was copy pasted. Then one summer I installed gentoo. I used it for about a year. If something broke, I made sure to understand why, and to not just fix it. I learned more in that year than I had in the first 4 combined. Now I use debian and arch linux, it's not worth the hassle of running a gentoo system. But oddly, nothing seems to break anymore. I don't feel like I'm doing anything differently. That leads me to the conclusion that not breaking installations is more about uncovering the unknown unknowns of your understanding of your system than anything. Just my $0.02.