When Unix Stops Being Fun

[Daniela]

On Sunday 03 October 2004 03:50, Dave Vollenweider wrote:
> This has nothing to do with technical problems, but rather it's more of a
> request for moral support.  This may seem disjointed, so bear with me.
>
> I've been using FreeBSD for over six months now, but I've been using
> Unix-like operating systems for almost two years.  I started with Red Hat
> Linux back when Red Hat was making and selling their "consumer-grade"
> version of Red Hat Linux, then switched to Debian before going to FreeBSD
> last March.  I now also run NetBSD on one of my machines.

I'm into FreeBSD for over two years now. It is the only OS I ever got really 
close to, after using Winblows for four years. Apart from this, I only had a 
quick look at NetBSD and SuSE Linux.

> Through all this, I've developed a passion for this type of OS, seeing the
> elegance, performance, and sheer power of Unix.  This has affected me to
> the point of me changing my career path.

Me too.

[...]
> Now, being that I know there are some very experienced people on this list,
> I'm betting that I'm not the only one that has experienced this, that
> learning new things in Unix-like OSs becomes more of a chore than something
> to do for fun.  My question is, what advice would you have for dealing with
> this?

I developed a few rules and techniques for keeping the interest:

1. Avoid doing the same thing over and over again.
2. Do bigger projects as well as some playful experimenting.
3. Don't use closed-source (or commercial) software. I don't know how you
   react to it, but the "closed" look and feel really puts me off.
4. If it's running well, don't interrupt it. Unless you feel you're hitting
   the wall, don't take a break while solving a complex problem.
5. Keep one style for one session. If you're into multiple things that have to
   do with computers, don't mix them up. Especially don't mix high-level and
   low-level activities. For example, don't do Javascript programming (or
   webdesign in general), complex image editing or maybe even 3D modelling on
   the console with a CLI. On the other hand, don't do ASM programming in a
   graphical IDE, use vi instead. If you do the dirtiest lowest-level hacks,
   you may be well advised to even use TECO, or some other editor which is
   really hard to use.

I don't know to which extent these rules apply to you, but they always worked 
for me. Keep in mind that this is NOT the way to high productivity, but it 
can help if your interest is fading away.
If this doesn't help, there's one more technique that will (if done properly) 
certainly make UNIX fun again, but it implies a LOT of overhead, and I'm 
almost sure you don't want to do this unless you have nothing to do for the 
next few months.

Regards,
Daniela