Man, let me tell you, getting this whole “sharing my practice” thing rolling, it wasn’t some grand plan from the get-go. Nah, it started out of pure frustration, really. I was always dabbling, you know? Fiddling with code, messing with old hardware, trying to learn new stuff all the time. But my “notes”? Ha! They were a chaotic mess.
I’d jump into a new project, say, trying to get some ancient Linux distro running on an old box, and I’d spend hours figuring out some obscure command or config file tweak. I’d finally nail it, feel like a genius for about five minutes, and then, boom, a few weeks later, I’d need to do something similar, and all that hard-won knowledge? Gone. Poof! Just a vague memory. I’d find myself back on square one, digging through forums again, swearing at the screen. It was such a waste of effort, hitting the same walls over and over.
One evening, after I’d just spent a solid two hours trying to remember how I’d previously set up a specific Docker volume mount – something I knew I’d figured out before – I just threw my hands up. Enough was enough. I needed a system. Not just for work stuff, but for all my personal tinkering, all the random bits of tech wisdom I was picking up and then promptly forgetting. This was probably about three years back.
Starting Small and Rough
My first attempts were, well, pretty amateur. I grabbed a fresh notebook, one of those cheap spiral-bound ones, and just started scribbling. Whenever I hit a snag and found a solution, I’d jot it down. Command lines, config snippets, little mental notes about why something worked. It was messy, full of cross-outs and arrows pointing everywhere. My handwriting is terrible anyway, so half the time, even I couldn’t read my own brilliant insights a day later. That lasted maybe two weeks before I gave up on the physical notebook.
Next up, I figured, “Okay, digital is better.” I tried just making plain text files. A `*` file, a `linux_*` file. I’d open Notepad++ and dump everything in there. It was better than the physical notebook, sure, because at least it was searchable. But it quickly became just as unstructured. A single giant file with a thousand lines of unformatted text. Trying to find anything specific was like looking for a needle in a haystack, even with the search function. It was just a big ol’ brain dump, not a proper record.
I knew I needed something with a bit more… structure. I started looking around, just basic stuff. I wasn’t after anything fancy, no enterprise-level wiki or anything. Just something personal. I stumbled across Markdown. Man, that was a game changer. Suddenly, I could add headings, bullet points, code blocks! It made everything so much easier to read and organize. I started creating separate Markdown files for each topic – one for networking tips, one for Python tricks, another for shell scripts I used often.
Building My Own “Brain”
Once I figured out Markdown, the game truly changed. I thought, “Okay, now I need a central place for these files.” I tried a few different note-taking apps that supported Markdown. Some were too complicated, some were too simple. I even messed around with a local Git repo for a while, just committing my Markdown files. That felt a bit overkill for personal notes, but it worked to keep versions.
What really clicked was when I decided to just use a simple folder structure on my main computer, synced to a cloud drive. That way, I could access my notes from my laptop, my desktop, whatever. I created a main folder called “Tech Brain,” and inside that, subfolders like “Servers,” “Programming,” “DevOps,” “Random Fixes.” Each topic got its own Markdown file, or sometimes a small group of related files.
My routine became pretty solid:
- Hit a problem? Tackle it.
- Find the answer? Immediately open the relevant Markdown file.
- Document it. Write down the problem, the solution, and any steps, commands, or code snippets.
- Add context. Explain why it worked, any gotchas, or alternative approaches.
It sounds simple, right? But actually sticking to it, especially when you’re tired or just want to move on to the next thing, that was the hard part. For the first few months, I had to really push myself. There were days I’d solve something, get excited, and almost forget to write it down. Then I’d have to force myself to go back, open the file, and type it all out. It felt like a chore at first.
The Payoff and the Path to Sharing
But then, slowly, it started paying off. I’d hit a problem, and instead of instantly jumping to Google, I’d first check my “Tech Brain.” And more often than not, there it was! The exact command, the config setting, the obscure error message workaround. It saved me so much time and frustration. It was like I had built this external hard drive for my own memory, and it actually worked!
The documents themselves started getting richer. Not just raw commands, but explanations in my own words. Little tips and tricks I’d picked up. I even started adding sections for “Things I Still Need to Figure Out” or “Future Ideas” for certain topics. It became more than just a reference; it was a living document of my learning journey.
After about a year of doing this, I had amassed a pretty significant collection of notes. Friends or colleagues would sometimes ask me about a particular issue, and I’d find myself pulling up my notes to explain it. And then it hit me. If these notes were so useful to me, and even to a few friends, maybe they’d be useful to other folks out there struggling with the same stuff?
That was the turning point. I thought, “Hey, why not just clean some of these up and put them online?” That’s how this whole blog thing really kicked off. I started picking out the most relevant, well-documented solutions, polishing them up a bit, making them a little more readable for a wider audience, and hitting that “publish” button. It wasn’t about being an expert, just sharing what I’d figured out the hard way.
So now, when you read one of my posts, you’re not just getting a solution. You’re getting a slice of my own journey, straight out of that “Tech Brain” I painstakingly built. It’s a record of the struggles, the late-night fixes, and the small victories I’ve had along the way. It’s been a crazy ride, but totally worth it. And I’m still just documenting, learning, and sharing as I go.
