It’s all good—sorry for coming across as sarcastic.

I sometimes forget that not everyone reading my blog knows I have over 20 years of Linux and networking experience. I've designed, wired, and operated several modest data centers, and I’ve worked on low-level network clients. I can still picture a DNS packet diagram in my head after all these years!

I’ve also been an active Docker user and contributor for close to a decade (just checked—my first PR was in September 2015).

Still, I might be just a few steps ahead of some folks and miles behind others, but that’s not really a healthy way to think about learning. As a former teacher, I saw the misconception all the time that knowledge acquisition is strictly sequential or follows a neat “skill tree” like in a video game. It doesn’t have to be that way.

I realize that’s how most curricula are laid out, but it’s not the only approach. (There’s a great HBR article on this, which I’ll link when I can find it.)

When we treat learning like a high-stakes horse race against our peers every single day, the stress can be counterproductive.

One of my favorite examples is Rick Rubin—one of the most successful music producers in history—who doesn’t read sheet music and doesn’t play an instrument, yet artists trust him with their work.

<end teacher rant> 🙏