Linux And The Rule Of Elimination

Alright, living with something I love and care deeply about with all my shortcomings has enabled me to look inside me and my life.

Embracing Linux way back in the late 90s was one of the bloody good decisions I have made in life that I am so proud of. Despite all the ill advice and glittering of shallow shiny stuff’s popularity never fazed me the slightest bit. See, my tenacity is reflected in my words and I am not saying it for the sake of getting traction.

Predominantly, the adoption of a particular technology in that nascent stage of technological embark helps me to fathom the nuance of surviving with it. And since the lesson learned quite early in the stage of getting along, seems to have had a profound impact on my life.

Initially, two things matter most of the dive into this:

• The lack of bend of mind of mine
• The possibility of doing something useful without being clogged.

And that initiates a lot for me. The route is long and torturous(like everyone else) but the fruit it bears for me gives me a deep satisfaction of accomplishing something I always wanted to. Nope, I am not complacent nor I ever will be, because, the damn thing called life keeps coming at you all the time to embrace something to go forward.

There were phases, where I was super weighed by ever-so-present people’s blatant promotion of something very feeble stuff. Later, I discovered, or came to know, that it was more of a thing about one of them in the herd thing keep their sanity and ego intact. Never ever bought that notion or encouraged or entertained anyone to impose that on me. Do I miss out on that? Probably, but I just didn’t give a f… to ponder.

It took me more time than normal to get over the depicted “norm” of the schmuck’s armory than to find out what actually play well. Again, this kinda realization leads me to some thoughts:

• I have nothing to prove to anyone.
• Nor do most people’s voices ever matter to life.
• Pleasing everyone is not possible and you have to take some tough call.

I have been sticking to those thoughts and boy! It has provided me rich benefits over the decades.

Eliminating stuff and people who I figure are not good enough to be part of my life is the key and it takes me more time to evaluate than necessary. But, in the end, I believe, I made the right decision which helped me survive in this harsh world.

Linux/UNIX helped me inject a thought that *minimalism” is the thing and it should be nurtured and embraced with vengeance. Whether it is about software/hardware selection or life in general.

Nope, it is not all hunky-dory. It has an inherent cost of “not being part of” something very dominant. But, at least that allows me to have a say in my way, damnit that is what matters most.

The efficiency got tenfold high when I started to discard things and also people from my life with conscious understanding. It is all I am measuring my way of looking at life, not by the “said rule of life”. Did I falter? Yes, I did, that was too many occasions. I felt miserable then, but like everything else, either it healed itself or I put a conscious effort to get over it. Because sticking with that trauma will not help to move forward.

Learning from better people and trying to embrace their stuff in my own way of adopting made me realize that putting in an honest effort has long-term value. And I have been hooked on it since then.

Also, by being really blunt, when I don’t like something, generally, I don’t hold back but let the offender know about my feelings. It clears things in a jiffy, either we are getting along or we are not. Nope, I am not living in a glass house and it proved too costly to live in it. 🙂

Some technical aspect of elimination helps to do my stuff regarding computing, to a finite set of things, which importantly, I love to do. I have a specific set of software that helps me to do the day-to-day life operation with a computer. Special cases arrive very seldom and I obey the rule of it if I really need that ploy into my workflow.

Open source software is one of the prime ethos of giving you freedom to live with. But it comes at a price if you are willing to pay for it. The do-it-yourself is one of the coherent parts of that freedom. Thankfully, the lesson learned very early days of adopting it. Figuring out with lots of trial and error methods and striking off what is not so important is a very time-consuming process and it took me years of perseverance. Sure, we forward and the requirement gets uplifted but not so much that you have to bring in what is all available there. The more you have the more time it consumes to maintain and manage those.

The famous words Less Is More hold very true especially for me the mentioned reasons earlier in this article. It might be less compared to a plethora of other things, but very intense to manage and needs more attention to details. The overhead gradually goes away after some time when you are settled with those limited options.

I have been running/using Linux exclusively for over two decades and I am a bit faintly disappointed with it. Yes, from time to time, especially in the early days, it quite often brought me to my knees, and days were longing and withstanding the pain it inflicted upon me. It was mostly because of my lack of understanding and overboard with things that were not so important. Plus, learning has its bearing too. A self-taught person needs to be more careful and spend more time evaluating stuff to embrace. Otherwise, the chances would be high to get your feet in the trap.

I have been aggressively eliminating stuff from computing requirements and in life too. The road is not smooth nor ever will be. Getting jolted quite often does not diminish my inclination to optimize resources for betterment. Somehow, I just can’t let it go out of my system.IOW, I have been hooked on it for a long long time.

Getting involved in Linux Kernel development also taught me about the process’s Black & White enigma. Visiting expert’s work and talking to them taught me to look for something in work, which I was missing completely. Those little interactions with them cleared so many clouds in my mind and I can apply the learned lessons more aptly now. Likewise, as am getting older the stupidity of mine and the other peoples come to light, and blind faiths(had I have any? If at all)are going into oblivion.

Not necessarily that I hold things tight all the time. I have been proven wrong many a time in the past. Should I be emotional about that fact? Rather I swallowed the bitter pill and learned the lesson to forge ahead. I have to take a leaf out of better people’s lives and try to not engage in a spat for an unjustified reason, whatever the provocation may allude to it.

Learning anything is/was always a steep curve for me and I mentioned the reasons above. But that’s not certainly a point try to make again and again that started to sound like an excuse to not do the necessary things to improve. I have a barrier (which is extremely hard way ingrained in me), to consume from whom and discard from what.

I am putting an effort to survive in this world like everyone else. I am not apologetic about my follies, without them I wouldn’t be true to myself or others.