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Subject:Re: Help!!!!! I don't know where to start From:Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 15 Aug 2001 21:16:48 -0700 (PDT)
> What I would really like
> to know is how intimidated do you get each time you're confronted with a
> new project, and how do you handle it? I've been reading oceans of
> management and motivational books. Every time my mentor suggests a book,
> I'm at the library picking it up.
Go find the hardware, software, or whatever it is you are writing about
and play with it for a few days. Install it, look at it, beat it up.
Figure out how it works. Then start explaining it to yourself. Don't worry
about being right, just try to reason out the details. Eventually, (after
making numerous mistakes and learning from them) you'll be correct more
often than your incorrect.
Its hard to learn and work, and impossible to document complex systems
unless you get in front of them and use them.
As for motivation...what motivates me is the thrill of playing with a new
toy. I just got this awesome new vulnerability scanner that lets me pound
my way into just about any computer, router, or firewall. I have been
having a blast hacking the computers in our lab. I just hacked a well
hardened WinNT box. It was kewl!
> Does anyone have any tips for me. Any help in this mind-swimming
experience
> that you can provide would be appreciated, more than you'll know.
Work harder, not smarter.
What I mean is - quit trying to make it all make sense instantly. Just
start fiddling and playing and using brute force on whatever it is you are
supposed to be learning. Be patient. Your intelligent mind is much slower
that your conscious mind. Complex systems take time to learn. You have to
just start beating your head against the wall and hope - at some point -
it will begin to make sense.
Resist the temptation to organize and plan. You need to explore first and
then organize. Wait until patterns start to emerge and you've said "Ah ha"
a few times. Then you're ready to organize things.
Just don't let yourself get disengaged and focusing on irrelevant details
- like the tools you're using, the fonts, the styles - all that shit can
be fixed later. Focus on what matters - content, organization, clarity,
purpose, etc. You can make the fonts pretty in version 2.0.
Andrew Plato
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