What if you forgot EVERYTHING? - Re-Learning IT after MEMORY LOSS w/ Shawn Powers | Linux | CCNA

Key Takeaways

my head went through the side passenger window and I do not remember anything anything before March of 1999 for me does not exist what if one day you just suddenly forgot everything your wife your kids making coffee or even doing your job what if you had to start over and relearn everything you know that's exactly what Sean powers had to do Sean powers is a CBT Nuggets trainer he knows Linux backwards and forwards he he's an expert but something happened to him to where he lost his memory everything and this interview we covered how that happened and then how he recovered from this the key takeaway from this guy's is what I always say live your life full of gratitude be thankful for everything you have and everything you do and also leave all your excuses at the door after watching Sean's interview I don't think you're gonna have any excuses anymore [Music] hello what's going on guys welcome back to network chuck I've got the one and only Sean powers here now he not only is it DevOps extraordinaire and he not only knows Linux better than he knows his wife no he has an amazing story about how he's progressed as it in his IT career and it's it's astounding and I'm I was encouraging to me and I know it's gonna be encouraging to you so let's uh let's jump right into that so how you tell it better just tell me what happened what happened to you okay I'll actually start right from the beginning all right so I went to high school like all people do most people do out of high school I went to Michigan Tech and I was going to be an electrical engineer for the sole reason that they made a lot of money and that's what I wanted to do I was pretty smart guy I went to Michigan Tech during the third semester I was in calc 3 and they were doing things with numbers that I did not think needed to be done so I skipped all of my engineering classes and went to the computer lab now this is back in the date myself here this is back in 1993-94 so there really were not a whole lot of options for networking classes or anything other than like C++ program it was really you know if you were gonna go into computers you were a C++ program yeah you were a computer science major yeah that was it and so I skipped classes and went to the computer labs to figure out how the networking worked and figure out you know okay so this is a client what's the server and I spent the rest of my time at college not going to class but just going to the computer lab I ended up dropping out of college which is good because it was expensive to just skip and go to class computer labs but anyway I went back and after that I got a job working tech support at a local college it was a community college and they had just started internet service for their students 1993 is when the world wide web was invented you can look that up if you are so I was tech support helping people install trumpet windsock and if you know what trumpet windsock is you get a special gold star you can comment below I will heart and retreat or however I can make that possible if you know what that is no googling don't cheat anyway so I was running a tech support and then on the way home from actually on the way to work one day for some reason my car went off the side of the road my head went through the side passenger window and I do not remember anything anything before March of 1999 for me does not exist so so I when he first told me that I'm like okay he didn't remember back then no no he still does not remember anything yeah he almost passed that point like almost 20 years and I still don't remember anything no childhood I had a child who was 2 years old I remember having a child I was married still in yeah so it was kind of rock bottom for me right I I no longer could do the job that wasn't all that great anyway I mean I was doing tech support but it wasn't that great but I couldn't even do that I was agoraphobic you know his head injury amnesia it was a really really bad time for me so I couldn't work my wife was very pregnant with our second child she had to go back and bus tables I didn't tell you this bar but she had to go bus tables for us to pay for food I stayed at my mother-in-law's house we slept on a mattress on the floor there's like violin music playing so that's where I wasn't the reason today that Linux is my operating system of choice is not necessarily some big philosophical decision that I made although I love Linux high open-source it's because it was free I couldn't afford anything and I couldn't afford anything but Linux because it was absolutely free so some of the skills I had like I didn't know how to use my computer to open up a window but when I got home from the hospital I saw the computer keyboard and like Donna can can you make a window come up here so I can type because my fingers knew how to type I could type like the wind I didn't know what to type but yeah so that was that was how I started my career was a head injury hospital stay for getting my firstborn child and sleeping on a mattress on the floor so if I can start there that's a pretty little bar yeah I mean think about that I mean whatever starting point you are right now you likely know how to fire up your computer right I mean you you know how to connect to a Wi-Fi you know how to you know how watch YouTube that's at the plus Shawn didn't I mean that's that's crazy he he went from knowing everything to be an IT tech to supporting IT to not knowing any of that I have know how to turn a computer on and he started from scratch and learned Linux and he built a career in a mean now he's a CBT knife trainer I mean it's that's awesome because I want other people to have that same I mean I love what I do know and I wasn't loving what I was doing at the community college that's why I drove my car off the side of the road you don't remember why though that's the funny side of all that though I was driving with coffee because I'm an IT guy right so I had coffee in my hand it wasn't really coffee it was gas station cappuccino pumpkin spice cappuccino before that was such a popular thing yeah ha ha can spice cappuccino all over my lap to this day the smell of pumpkin spice cappuccino just makes me ill want me to but not for that reason wow that's insane so I guess this this is probably the coolest thing we can ask is how did you go about learning Linux well what was the method you went about because you started from nothing like little to no IT knowledge to becoming a Linux master and likes ninja how did you do that so my answer to that question in so many forms is always the same way just do it right so I said I learned Linux because that's all I could afford that includes I couldn't afford books on Linux right and the world wide web was the kind of thing where you had to call a guy running tech support to help you set up Trump at windsock I mean I don't even know Google exists don't know when Google started you know but they started no idea so comment below so people can know yeah I don't think Google was the thing I think we use like Alta Vista or maybe Yahoo Yahoo yeah Yahoo was there yeah yeah but you know you couldn't learn as easily online googling things as you can now and I couldn't afford to buy the books and I lived in a small podunk town the library computer things there they didn't have any books on computers there so I got the Halloween version of red hat and that's a pretty famous version really yeah I don't know there's one called Halloween that it was like so early on that sounds really around Halloween so in a style that you know with floppy discs like you do and my goodness I just learned furthering oh it's like a floppy disk is a square item I'll put it right here you most of you probably won't know it how big is it well at three and a half no they used to be five and a quarter I am right clapping and then before that they're like eight and a half and really father yes yes so yeah so you would download the save icon people no yes that's where it came from this in history to every icon so yeah that's why I just installed it I didn't we just learned it by doing and that's Inc that's absolutely incredible because I now to get Linux going and you can find a million YouTube videos or you can find a one awesome course it'll show you everything on CBT Nuggets yeah this happens to be Shawn's course you can use VMs to I mean there were no VMs back then right I had to ruin our computer and make my life angry it install Linux I don't even think about that yeah I mean yeah now you can just isolate it no one knows the wire and no one's the wiser yes oh my goodness exactly there's good times oh my gosh so that just tells you like I know a lot of you guys probably all have a lot of money maybe you're in a horrible career you don't know what to do with your life try Linux I just it's knowing Sean's story knowing he had to relearn everything hey at least you're starting out a little bit better than that I'm assuming I mean you're watching this on the computer and you have the internet the wide web I mean you can learn Linux for free right now you can start right now like this pause this video go away then if the video is printed over anyway just go go little arse of linux right now don't do the car accident first that wasn't thought that wasn't the important thing yeah yeah so you know what I say that maybe it was because I wasn't brave enough to do something other than what I was doing well that's and that's another good point I mean how many of you guys on the helpdesk right now how many you were doing tech support and your your may be comfortable and you you like where your app but you know there's more you know there's more than that you're you're probably afraid to just take that next step so no again don't get a car accident no but maybe you can make this your car accident maybe this could be your wake-up call that you've got no excuses you may have fears you may have things getting in the way but you don't have any excuses put those away now and start learning so sad for CBT nice I that's a great place to start or find something else does tons of free stuff but just start right now like literally start now car accident car accident you have any questions for Sean I'm making a promise for him and I'm giving an obligation right now without even knowing it you have any questions for Sean comment below I'll try to get these to him and I'll filter them for you and I'm sure the gracious to answer them I'm how to get started as a Linux admin if you look on again if you look on LinkedIn if you look on dice and you look up for you know Linux engineer or Linux admin these are lucrative careers and it's for me at least I becoming a Windows admin is almost an easier path because you already use Windows 7 or Windows 10 you already familiar with that environment but no one uses Linux death or Ubuntu as their main operating system some people do obviously but you should it is awesome I mean I don't use it as my I have it as a VM but it's there's a more of a barrier to get to that point kinda Lane networking it's not as easy to break into it as it would be like a system admin for Windows so it's it's a rare skill it really is so look it up check it out start today anyways guys thanks so much for watching and if you haven't already hit that like button and subscribe I'll put all of Sean's information below his his courses he does this awesome thing it's not the Linux Journal it's Linux Journal Linux Journal he publishes articles on there and it's obviously it's a it's a publication talking about Linux and he does all this amazing stuff talking about living stuff so check that out all the links below well thanks so much for joining us here absolutely awesome anytime and I'm not that smart you can do Linux too and that's the secret is you know we were not that's smart we just we know how to find things and we can record you to it for you so and you can do the same thing that's it anyways I will catch you guys later I'm on Network Talk [Music]