[Cialug] Back to Linux Basics Series

[jim kraai]

That makes me think of this:

What assumptions have we forgotten?

Most of us have learned habits, and some of us--myself included--have
forgotten why we still do some of the things we do the way we do them.

Practicing the materials on a willing victim or two who've been told to ask
"why" a lot is about the quickest, most effective way of flushing those out
before we're doing a presentation.

I get asked why I:
- ls -alrt so often when troubleshooting a system I'm not familiar with
-  ps aufwx, then repeat, piping through grep

Or "WTH did you type into vi to get it to do THAT?!"

What's interesting is that a lot of those details get lost, relegated to
muscle memory, and aren't available to the conscious brain any longer to
use to teach new people without some forethought or stumbling during the
presentation.