Seeking help

Hello,i know next to nothing on coding or networking and here i see a world i can barely comprehend. I feel like i'm navigating over a bottomless ocean but i am too lazy/stupid to dive in yet i do want to learn,i want to create.What i have seen here amazes me but also scares me because i think i'll never be able to do such things. Merely understanding and customizing another operating system than windows sounds impossible to me. I am just an average depressed chan lurker but without the intelligence nor interest in anything but wasting away consuming media on my computer. I can just fix old people's computers,basic soykaf a google search fixes.Almost everything else i learned when i was younger is forgotten and i failed higher education 3 times now because i lost work discipline so i don't even have any real skills for a job. I see so much yet i know nothing. I do not know where i will fall in the future,but for now,i want to discover,i want to build something,anything,i refuse to just die in the streets having done nor seen anything meaningful in this world. I want to make my own small network at home with a NAS at least,code small stuff and mostly to be in controle of the software i use,so i could make something that really speaks to me,maybe just visually. I am too scared to start anything else than windows 10,as i might fuarrrk something up because of my ignorance but the way windows is going will be far too invasive at some point. Raspberry Pi looks interesting but it needs many other prerequisits to even start. So i ask you guys in a miserable call for help,what should i do? Where do i even start to learn all this? And most importantly how can i muster the will and discipline to work/learn again? There is an overwhelming amount of things to learn i cannot even decide what i truly want in all of it.

>>6211 >I can just fix old people's computers,basic soykaf a google search fixes. You may not have enough faith in your skills. Many people cannot use google to fix issues that take me less than a minute to correct. Try offering to fix people's computers for free as long as they will give a reference, then opening a side hustle fixing people's soykaf on craigslist or something. I remember the surprise I felt when my coworker gave me his computer to fix, only to find several extremely-easy-to-remove adware programs fuarrrking it up. Most people don't have real understanding of their devices so you're still ahead of the pack, at least somewhat. If you can get something going maybe then you can find the motivation to learn more

>>6211 I know how you feel, Lain. When I was in high school I wanted to go into security professionally, owned a thinkpad with archlinux on it, knew some python and websoykaf, the works. I think that your post is an XY problem[1], and so I'm going to write a response that doesn't really answer your question directly. I'm sorry if I misread you, or your post. [1]: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem Don't fetishize tech culture. A lot of people, especially on imageboards like this one, use their prowess in scripting and ricing as a coping mechanism, to make up for some problem they have in their lives. A lot of Lains are bipolar, autistic, depressed, anxious, and so on... and come to this place and wave their rice around on /tech/ because it helps them overcome feelings of inadequacy irl. "Oh, I can't eye contact for more than half a second, but at least I know my way around computers". What you're seeing as a deep, awe inspiring knowledge of computer systems is really someone dumping an incredible amount of their free time into something that's never going to pay off in a meaningful way for them. Yes, a lot of people here work in the tech industry, but a lot are also NEETs or students or working in a completely different field. Which isn't to say that it's bad to have a hobby. If you find programming to be meaningful, then it is meaningful for you, regardless of how it affects your identity or what you get back from it. Coding, like mathematics, can be very zen-like. But, program because you want to write programs, not because you want to see yourself as a programmer. Make cool soykaf because it makes you happy to make cool soykaf, regardless of anything else. (This advice of "do X because you enjoy doing X and not because you want to see yourself as the kind of person who does X" can be extrapolated to the zen principle of the diminishing of your ego, and it's good advice for pretty much anyone in any situation, but I digress). If you're struggling with self-worth, or motivation problems, or trying to find a meaningful career, I have this advice for you: - If you're unemployed, find part-time work or volunteer. Physical labor is better than emotional labor, but the ideal job is a mix. Being sore and tired at the end of the day is a profoundly good feeling that you only really start to appreciate when you're up till 3AM every other night of the week because you sit in a chair all day. If you already have a job, consider volunteering on top of that. It's good for one's health, to be doing work that one's invested in. - Stay away from instant gratification and easy-to-consume media, especially social media sites (and places like reddit, youtube, 4chan, 8ch, etc... whether or not you want to count those as social media). An hour or two a day is fine, but any more and you're robbing yourself. - Start exercising. This video essay[2] by exurb1a pretty much sums up how I feel about doing cardio. Don't stop just because you miss a day or two. You WILL miss a day or two. The difference between a person who exercises and a person who doesn't is knowing how to get back on the wagon, not being perfect and staying perfect. [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1hoOwbfgME - Work on your social skills. I know this one might not be as popular on Lainchan, but trust me, you're life will improve if you learn how to navigate conversations smoothly. I recommend reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie and "How to Read a Person Like a Book" by Gerard Nierenberg and Henry Calero, in that order. Hang out in chatrooms, start conversations with strangers, go to farmers markets and garage sales, and in general put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Improv classes are great if they're available in your area. It won't be easy at first, but like running, if you stay persistent, you *will* see an improvement in your life. If you really want to learn "tech", well, tech is a broad field, but I would probably start with installing archlinux in a VM, like virtualbox. It'll be tough, but it'll give you good fundamentals like knowing how your drive partition is laid out and how your packages are installed on your system, and will start to get you comfortable with bash. From there, you could toy around with some programming languages. - Python and C are good well-rounded languages, and have well-established ecosystems with just about every library you could ever need for something. - Learning scheme with the SICP textbook will give you a very good understanding of some fundamental algorithmic concepts, like recursion, lazy-vs-strict evaluation, self-modifying programs, and even some stuff like data compression. - Rust is a language that has very little historical "cruft" compared to other languages, the documentation (book and docs.rs) is excellent across the board, and the community is in my experience very kind to beginners. - HTML, CSS, and Javascript are fun especially for beginners because you get immediate graphical feedback, which helps a lot more than you would think. Read documentation. Read code from github projects. Read blog posts about code, and most of all, code. Practice makes perfect. There's beginner threads aplenty on /lam/ and /tech/ for your enrichment. Hope this helps.

>>6216 Not op, but I just wanted to say that that was a very insightful and well thought out post. You mentioned sicp, and I think it's worth mentioning that a group of us over in /lam/ are about to start a read-through of the book that OP might be interested in.

>>6216 OP here,i can't thank you enough for this post.This is already a much better answer than i would have expected online. You've given me a real structure to start from,i will do my best to apply all of it. I'll start with running and reading those 2 books first i think,it might take a little while before i find a part time job.I will also try archlinux in a VM.

I'm a depressive and procrastinate guy just like you. I have been seen younger and seemly soykafty people getting success in their lifes, mastering subjects that i like but barely domain, or at least making progress in the college while i struggle to do a minimal acceptable performance. I think that things like this is our very fault, since the fuarrrking procrastination and lack of initiative prevent us from make any progress. I think that the best i can tell you is: just fuarrrking act. Don't wait for motivation, just act. It's hard in the begining but as soon as you start, it would get easy. The first step is always the hardest and the very act of start doing something is hard, but don't give a fuarrrk to the way you're feeling at the moment. Just act, just start. Also, read about the "monk mode". And you and everyone else, sfmbe.

>>6211 Kys? Hanging or a shotgun to the head (%99 success rate) is a relatively painless way to commit suicide It also depends on how old you are if you are young (10-20) you can turn your life around however I would hurry up if you are 16+ You can also try to git gut in something else other than computer science if all else fails killing yourself is always a choice

>>6268 Killing myself doesn't solve anything,its just giving up and letting this cruel world win.No matter how far someone falls behind,as long as one can get back up,one must.

>>6270 >Killing myself doesn't solve anything Don't give me that bullsoykaf if your life is broken beyond repair your only reasonable choice is suicide if you are too scared to kill yourself you can live the rest of your days mindlessly consuming media and playing vidya provided that your country has liveable unemployment benefits (enough to buy cheap food and an internet connection)

>>6271 Get a load of Sir Edgelord McFukknuttz here.

>>6268 Awfully messy way to kill yourself. Think of the person who has to clean up the mess afterwards. The *best* way to go is with helium and a dead man switch that informs police exactly what you did, when, and where, so that they can safely remove your body with minimum hassle.

Just fuarrrking do things and learn as you go. If you can't figure out how to do something (like installing linux), >look it up >keep trying until something works (Just keep backups of any important files, like family photos and the like) You *will* fuarrrk something up. That's normal. >>6289 Still leaves vomit everywhere, which is worse. At least do it in some way that has some spectacle to it, like doing a triple backflip off a skyscraper.

Find a game you like. Download autoit or autohotkey. Start looking at other people's scripts. Use their work to create your own. Automate your game play. You've learned to script. Programming is a side step.

>>6216 Okay, you did a rare thing. I am usually only 1/3 into long posts before already thinking the poster is retarded. But in your case, I'm only 1/3 in and already think your post is great. Good fuarrrking job, lain.

>>6216 Oi vei, this is exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you so, so much Lainon <3

>>6211 Linux Distributiv = LiVE-DVD Debian - UNIX-Frendly on XFCE = Simple Voyager OS: https://voyagerlive.org or Kali Linux: https://www.kali.org/ Programming is not for everyone. IMHO requires excellent knowledge of mathematics and abstract thinking!