God, how I love being the guy with the answer!

[blackbelt_jones]

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=77466#77466

For years, I always felt like the dumbest guy in the forum. But now, every once in a while, I'm the smart guy. Of course, part of that is because all the really smart guys all have jobs, and they're too busy to be surfing Linux forums at that moment, but that doesn't matter because I KNOW THE ANSWER!

Every once in a while, I mean.

[Parcival]

Congrats. :)

[sleepyEDB]

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=77466#77466

...because I KNOW THE ANSWER!

Every once in a while, I mean.
Me too. (See blackbelt's link above) :p


sleepy

[cybertron]

Troll enough forums for long enough and eventually you get lucky.:D

[irlandes]

Even a blind hog gets an acorn once in a while.

Actually, I am joking. Blackbelt, not all that long ago, came on here somewhat dumber than a rock on Linux. He has come a long way. Good job, Blackbelt.

[blackbelt_jones]

Blackbelt, not all that long ago, came on here somewhat dumber than a rock on Linux.

Pretty much...:o but that's still smarter than a rock on Windows!

Me too. (See blackbelt's link above) :p


sleepy

Sweet!

[irlandes]

Pretty much...:o but that's still smarter than a rock on Windows! !

True, but No insult intended. We all came here dumber than a rock on Linux. My real point was you have indeed become a strong force on Linux info on this URL. You have advanced by leaps and bounds.

[blackbelt_jones]

Hell, I didn't take offense. You pretty much paraphrased what I had said about being the dumbest person on the forum page. If I hadn't been so dumb, occasionally knowing the answer wouldn't make me feel so happy now.

I came to Linux as a former English Major, which if you want to get literal about it, would probably make me a little smarter than a rock, but I hadn't even been using Windows very long, (Used a C64 in college!) and while I'm still not ready for the certification exam, I know some things now, enough to occasionally be helpful to others, and I know more things all the time.

I also have A.D.D. Not fake A.D.D... real A.D.D! Reading manuals was always a huge struggle for me. I'm not saying that I didn't like reading the manual, though if I did, would tht be so wrong? I'm saying I stared at the pages for hours, read the same passages over and over, woke up with my face in the book and my drool on the page.

I still can't really read them. I browse through them, and use them for reference. I pick up something in the middle of the book, try some thing, search here, lurk here... It all starts to add up.

I know this is a cliche, but seriously, folks... If I can get this, anybody can. Although, please don't think that I'm trying to get away with pretending I know everything!

I'm really grateful to whoever decided to change the format of this site. Who remembers LinuxNewbie.com? This used to be a much less friendly place. I love political flame wars as much as the next guy, but there are plenty of places on the web where I can find one wherever I want it. Thank God there's a place where I can get away from that, and learn something useful and important from people whose opinion of the war in Iraq doesn't ever come up.

My advice to anyone who wants to learn from others... well, to hell with advice. Instead, I'll just tell you what worked for me.

Don't be pretentious. Don't try to sound like you know more than you do. They'll cut you off at the knees for that. Learn to say things like "What's that?" or "I don't know what that means" plainly and unapologetically.

Don't be too self-deprecating. You have a right to be here. You have a right to an opinion, and you have a right to be wrong. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about here.

Hang out. #linuxn00b in irc.freenode.org is a great place to chat about sports, movies, getting drunk, and sooner or later, someone will share somethihg really helpful with you. Geeks don't want you to use them as a substitute for learning how to find the answer. However, as a general rule, people who hang out in Linux chatrooms like to talk about Linux. It's not hard to get them started.

[Parcival]

We all came here dumber than a rock on Linux.

When I first came here, I had (tadaaaaa!) problems with my NVidia driver. :D

[blackbelt_jones]

In a sense, I only solved my problems with my nvidia driver a month or so ago. That was when I was able to get the nvidia driver working in debian, instead of suse.