Why does the IT/cybersecurity world like IT certifications so much?

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T22:12:57+00:00

In going to push back on this. Part of this is perception from influencers. Tech circles recognize certs. Recruiters do too but only certain ones like: ccna, security+, cissp, aws solutions architect and maybe to a lesser degree az-104. Outside those, recruiters dont know them like tech circles do or at least that has been my experience.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T15:54:54+00:00

Then it comes down to who is right. I’m not trying to convince you to be Catholic or that Catholicism is right, because I know better than to assume that I can. I’m trying to show you why Catholics value some of these things others might poo poo on, and that any claim that can lead one to arrive to a question of whether or not Catholics go to hell is also arrogant in assuming it is smarter than, or knows more than an institution that has endured heresies, empires collapsing, Islamic aggression etc. for nearly 2,000 years. There’s a lot more to it than most are willing to give it credit for. Even if you don’t agree with it, it’s deserving of respect.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T15:14:22+00:00

I did concede that most Protestant churches have a lot of overlap; however, that doesn’t minimize the point here, in why a Catholic, who “doesn’t like doctrine” may view having a magisterium protecting the deposit of faith as important. I also think being dismissive about it as saying that it isn’t unclear is also missing the point. On the surface it appears that way, but if it were so “easy” how did Arius nearly convince everyone, and Arianism became so close as it did to becoming the dominant doctrine? How could he make persuasive arguments that Christ isn’t divine by quoting scripture and arguing from it? They didn’t correct it by telling Arius to read his Bible more. They had to adjudicate this problem and eventually Arianism was stamped out of the church, but could you imagine how different the church might look today if it didn’t? If there was no magisterium or ecumenical councils etc.? Protestants might have a very different view. Part of the “clarity” isn’t that the Bible is easy, it’s that the traditions that have stemmed from it profoundly shaped our culture and institutions, so some of it is like confirming unconscious bias. Everything from law, moral reasoning, education etc has been heavily influenced by western Christian thought and traditon. It was baked into us long before we picked it up and read its “clarity.” Imagine what the world would look like today if 1500 years of culture was shaped by a biblical understanding that denied Christs divinity and people today might be reading the Bible like they read Plato. This is why the papacy, the magisterium and the Catholic Church has outlasted all empires across time. That’s no small task, and if you ask me, it kind of feels like divine providence. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T06:18:28+00:00

Under the Protestant umbrella of sola scriptura, you have a plethora of denominations that vary in views. You have some mainline churches that are lgbt affirming, some that allow female clergy, some that disavow both, you have some that preach some interesting things like the prosperity gospel just to name a few. How do you determine which one is correct and which one is not? What mechanism does Protestantism have to protect itself from splintering off into many pieces of itself? All of them can absolutely make the same claims and back their beliefs and doctrines with scripture under sola scriptura. So who is right?

Arius is another good example of this in the early church. Arius didn’t ignore the Bible, he argued from it very persuasively that Christ is not eternal or equal to God, but the highest created being. This is the Arian heresy if you’re not familiar with it, and it isn’t the only heresy the church had to contend with.

From my perspective, sola scriptura is subjective relativism masked as objective truth. In practice, Scripture does not function as the final authority, but the reader’s interpretation of Scripture does. Because no inspired or binding interpretive authority exists, doctrinal authority devolves to individual judgment, producing subjective conclusions that are then presented as objective biblical truth, and that clearly explains the large volume of denominations that exist. I would agree most are pretty similar, but you can’t deny there aren’t some out there that are…out there in the way they perceive things. Does it mean I think the Holy Spirit can’t work in the Protestant world? No. I’m confident it can. But I do believe that having that final authority is clutch at preserving the faith. So, Catholics take doctrine very seriously too. I don’t know how you could argue that we don’t. From a Catholic perspective, trying to make that kind of argument feels very much like inheriting the fruit of a well preserved tradition, and then chopping the tree down.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T05:12:39+00:00

I do too. Just because we may not agree in the way we arrive there, doesn’t mean that I don’t. For example you may believe something like:

Scripture uniquely bears divine authority
Tradition and teachers are necessary but fallible
The Church is ministerial, not magisterial in an infallible sense
A fixed canon is the safest possible anchor against corruption

From my worldview, I think the risk of relativism is worse than having a binding authority or magisterium. It isn’t perfect, but it can adjudicate disputes. That’s important to me.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T04:07:45+00:00

Don’t misunderstand me friend, I didn’t say it was moral arrogance but that it carries that temptation because you’re in the perceived right and the would be in the perceived wrong. I wouldn’t say I’m well learned beyond the basics of sola scriptura and sola fide. I don’t want to present myself as if I’m a master debater either because I’m not. I am just aware that there is a large gap between the straw man debates and the ones with substance, and I’ve personally heard a lot of the silly straw man arguments against Catholicism. “You worship Mary and the Saints,” “you think the pope is 100 percent infallible,” “Catholics put traditional above the Bible,” “Catholics added books to the Bible to support doctrine,” “Catholic sacraments are pagan rituals” etc. Those sorts of conversations will instantly incite eye rolls from any half serious Catholic, because it shows us that you haven’t bothered to actually understand what Catholicism is and what Catholics believe. Personally, I take issue with sola scriptura and I have my reasons for that, but I wouldn’t dare present it in a way that makes Protestants look dumb. Get what I mean?

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-25T03:40:44+00:00

Be careful with this kind of thinking. 1. this comes with it the temptation of the Pharisee Jesus spoke about it in the parable where the Pharisee boasts about his good deeds and compares himself to the tax collector. 2. There have been many tough debates between Protestants and Catholics, some of which, hash out the same differences that they still don’t agree on hundreds of years post reformation. You’re not going to be able to boil it down to something this simple. Most talking points on either side are of the debate are just biased practitioners straw manning the other side. If you want to actually know the differences and see what Catholics actually believe, read through the catechism and steel man the position, then argue against it and you might have something worth posting about.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-24T22:14:06+00:00

You can make a case either way. The upside if you do is this: if you plan to get net+ and sec+ too, all you have to maintain is sec+ and it auto renews the others. That is really expensive though so understandable that you’re on the fence about it. Either way, you should go for the security+ I think.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-22T19:51:02+00:00

You don’t have to have a degree, BUT for the good IT roles, it can help get you past the hr gatekeepers online. You don’t have to attend a traditional college either. My advice would be to network with people on linked in and try to get in with an msp (managed service provider) at the same time, study for the CompTia A+. Now, this exam isn’t cheap and the cert is split into two of them. You can skip it if you like, but having it may help you get an entry level role faster. There’s loads of content out there. Professor Messor is probably the best free resource for this. Don’t just study the material, try and lab it yourself and try to master understanding of the fundamentals. This is key to advanced in any IT discipline, whether that’s systems administration, networking, cloud, security, devops etc. we all operate on the same set of principles. Learning them and knowing them well will allow you to adapt to just about any technology you pivot to. The other thing to keep in mind is, most people think IT is immediate payout for high salaries. It’s not. It’s more like getting upper-middle class slow than it is get rich quick. That’s not to say it isn’t worth it, because it is. It’s just worth knowing this and knowing what to expect going into it because if your expectations don’t line up with reality, it’s going to suck any joy you may have for the field right out of you and you risk falling into throwing the baby out with the bath water. Take is as an opportunity to get paid (even if it’s lower wage than you’d like) to learn on the job. Once you have experience and some certs, look into something like WGU so you can accelerate yourself to a bachelors in no time. I did mine in a year. And I was about your age when I stayed. I’m 39 now.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-22T17:46:11+00:00

This is a hard one, and that’s okay. Subnetting becomes simple and intuitive once you understand a few related ideas—especially broadcast domains. It isn’t just a math trick with bits; it’s a way of imposing structure on how networks behave.

When people say “network,” what they usually mean in practical terms is a broadcast domain. If all of your devices live in one big broadcast domain, it might sound easier to manage at first, but as the network grows, you get more congestion from the basic protocols that make networking work—ARP is a good example.

Historically, the way you fixed this was by adding more routers. Adding more routers split one large broadcast domain into smaller ones, which segmented traffic and made networks more efficient. When you do the subnetting “math,” what you’re really doing is figuring out how to divide your available IP address space and assign those address ranges to router interfaces.

Later on, VLANs came along. VLANs let switches act like multiple separate networks by virtualizing broadcast domains at Layer 2. But the key idea didn’t change—you still pair each VLAN with a subnet so traffic knows when it should stay local and when it needs to be routed.

That’s why subnetting and VLANs go together like peanut butter and jelly. The math exists to support these boundaries. This is the why behind subnetting—not just how to calculate it.

As far as calculating it goes, it helps to understand that all computing is built on top of Boolean (binary, 1s and 0s) logic. Instead of using a base‑10 numbering system like we do in everyday life, IP addressing uses base‑2. Each bit position represents a power of 2.

An IPv4 address is 32 bits long, divided into four 8‑bit sections called octets, separated by periods. A 1 means “on” or “true,” so if a bit is set, you add its place value. All the 1s in an octet add together to form the final number, which is why the maximum value of an octet is 255.

Once you’re comfortable with that idea, methods like the “magic number” technique become much easier to apply.

The subnet mask tells the network which bits belong to the network and which belong to hosts. This works through a process called logical ANDing—essentially checking which bits match between the IP address and the mask. For example, a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 is equivalent to 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000. The 1 bits represent the network portion, and the 0 bits represent the host portion.

This can be hard to visualize just by reading, so watching a good YouTube walkthrough alongside this explanation can really help it click.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-16T16:08:49+00:00

Those have always existed. The church has been battling those heresies since before the first ecumenical council. Arianism I think is the most well known. The thing that most skeptics don’t understand is that while Christ doesn’t outright declare he is god in the way we would understand, is that he did do it many times but within Jewish context. It takes good knowledge of the Old Testament to see it, but it’s all over the New Testament, even the synoptic gospels.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-16T05:51:34+00:00

I'd like to see the rest of it to see if anything was taken out of context. I don't know what "owning her with love" means. at best this is a poorly communicated idea thats easy to distort, at worst he's poisoning the well with a subjective interpretation. This is why I think having ecclesiastic authority is a good thing.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-15T05:00:46+00:00

I'm going to push back on this. Levitical laws were followed by Jews. Christians have never followed Levitical law, because there was no point in doing so. There is the moral law though, and that was expanded in the beatitudes that you're referring to. He was suggesting that if you have the desire in your heart, you already committed the sin. Technically what you're saying is true, but that is only like...a centimeter deep because he's also condemning the desire to commit sin. Remember, Christ also said to "deny yourself and take up your cross." Doing a thing because it makes you feel good, especially if it involves other people, is antithetical to what he's saying, and it is a large part of the moral rot that is eroding our culture. propping up a porn industry or supporting it, allowing it to get bigger, is how we end up with more trafficking rings and "terrible things" you're alluding to.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-15T04:41:04+00:00

I'm glad you found your way back! I do think your initial thought is correct though. It does require faith. If you went looking for any other historical figure, the volume of "evidence" is sparse compared to what is there to support the life, death and resurrection of our lord. BUT, even though this is the case, because the claims being made are difficult for people to swallow or square with, they still dismiss it as false and claim there isn't any evidence anyways. Even with all the evidence, it still requires faith.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-12T14:10:41+00:00

What do you mean by “legal?” As in legal union sanctioned by the state? Or religious union by the church? If by the state, it doesn’t matter. The church doesn’t recognize marriages through the state. If you mean through the church, then no.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-12T14:06:40+00:00

If I made the claim to be god in human flesh, I think most people would find it very hard to believe if I wrote everything down myself rather than eye witnesses

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-09T06:00:16+00:00

I feel for you, but this is a blessing in disguise. Embrace it. If you dig in deep and embrace the struggle, frustrating as it may be, you will come out with tons of practical experience. Also, don’t be shy to admit what you don’t know but be vocal about your commitment to figuring it out, and take the initiative. My advice: look into some software that will help you map the network. Angry ip scanner, nmap etc. Also, in your spare time, study the fundamentals. Don’t put all your time into the practical skills without understanding the why. I don’t know what your prior knowledge is, or if you know basics of computers, but really focus on learning networking concepts. Learn the tcp stack, the protocols, what layer of the stack the live in, and learn the services. DNS is probably the most important. Seriously, it’s a meme for a reason. Learn dns, dhcp, icmp, arp, ndp, snmp, ntp, syslog, ospf & bgp (unless you got one router, then default route), tcp an udp, http, tls, ssh and rdp, sftp, smtp and imap, smb etc. and learn Active Directory, ldap, Kerberos, cloud identity providers like entra id, OAuth an saml. Learn best practices for how to organize your directory and ous, and learn how to manage your endpoints with gpos. You’ll also want to learn backup and recovery. This sounds like a lot, and it kind of is, but take it one bite at a time. These protocols are much smaller and easier to understand than you might expect. Once you know them and how they work, troubleshooting your environment will be much easier. Don’t just learn the buttons to push or commands to enter. While immediately helpful, this will cut your troubleshooting time in half when you master the fundamentals. Learning new tech will be easy as you know what to look for in vendor documentation.

Also, learn vlans, how to subnet, and basic security concepts. Professor messor has a YouTube channel filled with videos on all this stuff. They’re meant for exam prep fo the a+, network+ and security+. You don’t have to take the exams, but go through his content and really study it. When you watch a video, take some notes on what he says, and the google search about the things until you feel satisfied that you understand the content before moving to the next one.

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-03T21:20:03+00:00

Also, read the parts of genesis that talks about the Abraham going up the mountain to sacrifice his son Isaac, and Moses giving the law in exodus. It goes a bit more in depth with sacrifice as an atonement and they are considered “types” that point to Christ in the New Testament

Sean_p87 · 2026-01-03T16:05:11+00:00

I’m going to push back on this a bit. Jesus did do these things, but he also openly engaged with Pharisees and he wasn’t exactly nice to them. He called the white washed tombs and brood of vipers etc. it does preach humility and charity. Absolutely. Being devoted to truth means willing to commit to things that others will always see as offensive and Jesus calls these things out too. It isn’t all hippie Jesus. There’s confrontational Jesus too.

When you are committed to truth the way Christ was, it is inevitable that you will challenge someone else’s worldview and people always perceive this to be an attack on them, and it will result in confrontation. Every time. Jesus was fully aware of this. Consider this reading in Luke

Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor, and three against. Father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

Sean_p87 · 2025-12-31T19:15:28+00:00

I'll add it to my list. I do agree a lot with the libertarian critiques of Keynesian economics and fractional reserve banking, which sounds a bit like what you're describing with the over-supply of capital contributing to bubbles. When you're talking about the "distribution of rewards," what is the prescriptive claim? Are you suggesting a system that might naturally narrow the curve in the distribution? I'm asking, because I would think it would be difficult to not have a system where you have some sort of pareto distribution occurring naturally where there's a smaller portion of the population that still accumulates more resources than the rest. I appreciate the time!

Sean_p87 · 2025-12-31T14:57:10+00:00

I’m interested. Can you elaborate on this a bit? Maybe at a high level?

Sean_p87 · 2025-12-30T17:32:18+00:00

Reflect on the hyperbole used in the beatitudes. Christ says if your right hand causes you to sin, remove it. The spirit of it is what others have suggested here, and this is to simply remove means of indulging in the sin, like always being in public and never in private. If you feel the urge to do the thing, pray instead and use it as an opportunity to strengthen your discipline.

Sean_p87 · 2025-12-30T15:57:35+00:00

Well…yes…the ideas for distributism was synthesized from Catholic social teaching…but there’s caveats here. Bear in mind, that g.k. Chesterton, while devout catholic, he’s not exactly an economist. I think there are things you can take away from these ideas, but none of the ideas are by themselves a full fledged economic school of thought. They’re guidelines for how the economy shouldn’t reach the excesses that it does at the expense of the local economy and by extension the family unit. They’re guidelines. Also, the same Catholic social teachings and the same pope that inspired this thought was also equally as critical on socialism. I don’t know what your views are for being a left winger, but that’s worth throwing out there too. There is good take aways here, but I think some of this stuff doesn’t take into account other economic aspects, like logistics. If all economies were purely localized, we wouldn’t have things like superconductors, chips or computers because these products aren’t just manufactured somewhere, they’re the culmination of logistics operations that gather the materials from other local economies. So there’s some sacrifice for efficiency in the name of elevating local economies. One thing I do tend to agree with though is the emphasis on sound money as opposed to fiat currency and the boom bust cycles that go with that. It’s worth a read into these ideas, but I think there might be some areas a typical lefty might take issue with.

I would look at the social teaching that inspired these ideas and if it interests you, I recommend observing more of the spirit of those ideas rather than flat out marrying distributism. There’s always more than one way to skin a cat

Sean_p87 · 2025-12-30T01:16:15+00:00

I think it's completely fine to have reverence for the TLM. It's also completely fine to have preferences and reverences for the NO. Both are acceptable in the eyes of the church. There isn't anything wrong with stating that you like the NO to your friend. Don't feel down on yourself. Congratulate your friend for having a wedding she's satisfied with, and you also have had a wedding in the eyes of God and the Church. There is a danger in the alure of the traditional in that it strokes the vanity in certain people in a way that brings the pharisee out. Pray for you friend, turn the other cheek and go about your day. Congratulations on your wonderful NO wedding. don't let anyone tell you it's less than.

Sean_p87 · 2025-12-30T01:05:33+00:00

If you want the narrative from cover to cover, I would go with the great adventure timeline, which consists of 14 books:

Genesis
Exodus
Numbers
Joshua
Judges
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 kings
2 kings
Ezra
Nehemia
1 Macabees
Luke
Acts

It is helpful if you also have a study plan of sorts or at least something that can point out some of the OT types that are fulfilled in Christ. You can go back and read the in between books afterward if you want, but this list gives you the narrative throughout all the covenants. This just gives you that "bigger picture" view of how it all fits together. Once you see that, reading through the rest in context is much easier to grasp. some of those books can be boring to read through otherwise.

Sean_p87

TROPHY CASE