
So you want to be a wizard - swsieber
https://jvns.ca/blog/so-you-want-to-be-a-wizard/
======
thaumaturgy
The most valuable part of this talk has got to be her attitude (not to
diminish the rest of it, which is great too).

After you've been around the block a few times, and tried to learn all the
things, and been responsible for trying to un-break a lot of the things, and
the things that need to be un-broken start to look like an endless trickle,
and then -- as word gets out that you can fix broken things -- starts to look
like a Firehose of Infinite Dumping, then your attitude can start to take a
hit.

Because ultimately you want to start making things _better_ , not just dealing
with other people's mistakes all the time, and endlessly chasing mistakes
prevents you from making things better, and then you start to see common
causes behind a lot of the mistakes and you think, if people would just fix
_those_ , I'd like my job a lot more.

And that attitude is self-defeating. It leads to unhappiness and unfulfillment
and procrastination and mistakes of your own and, finally, resentment.

Fostering an attitude like hers is a great antidote for all that, and the
longer you can hold on to a curious and positive attitude, the longer you'll
be happy to learn about new things and new ways of fixing things.

~~~
spudlyo
This may be one reason why the BOFH stereotype exists. It definitely helps to
have the right attitude.

If you can view the bugs and problems you have to fix as an adventure game
puzzle rather than cleaning up other people's messes, you definitely enjoy
your job more. Having co-workers who understand your work definitely helps,
because working a vacuum sucks.

~~~
henrik_w
This is exactly how I see bugs - a mystery to be figured out. In the process
of figuring it out, you usually learn a lot about the system, and you
(hopefully) become better at avoiding creating bugs yourself.

[https://henrikwarne.com/2012/10/21/4-reasons-why-bugs-are-
go...](https://henrikwarne.com/2012/10/21/4-reasons-why-bugs-are-good-for-
you/)

------
enz
This is one of my favorite jvns post, with _How to teach yourself hard things_
([https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/09/01/learning-skills-you-can-
prac...](https://jvns.ca/blog/2018/09/01/learning-skills-you-can-practice/)).

Very inspiring.

~~~
Buttons840
Note: _How to teach yourself hard things_ is more recent than _So you want to
be a wizard_. (Just mentioning this because it gives some context as to how
they're related.)

 _So you want to be a wizard_ was turned into a "Zine":
[https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/12/01/new-zine--so-you-want-to-
be-...](https://jvns.ca/blog/2017/12/01/new-zine--so-you-want-to-be-a-wizard/)

~~~
codazoda
I absolutely love her zines and she's inspired me to create my own.

My latest series try's to teach programming to beginners by creating art. It's
like the type-in books and magazines I grew up with.

[https://gumroad.com/l/splashofcode](https://gumroad.com/l/splashofcode)

------
c22
Another reason not to ask the most experienced person you can find is that
it's likely been a long time since they've approached their domain from
anything near your perspective. They've deeply internalized complicated
abstractions and terminology that you might not have even been exposed to yet.
By asking someone with less experience they're more likely to understand what
you're asking for and be able to explain it in a way you can follow.

------
doesnt_know
Everything Julia makes and writes is amazing, she seems to have an almost
bottomless pit of enthusiasm and talent. I simultaneously deeply admire and am
a little jealous of her at the same time, is there a word for that?

~~~
pkghost
bewunderungeifersucht

~~~
Roxxik
This looks like german to me, but i haven't ever seen these words used
together. I thought it might be some old german and googled it, but searching
"bewunderungeifersucht" just yields your comment and "bewunderungseifersucht",
which i deemed more likely, yields nothing.

Disclaimer: I'm from germany

~~~
Kliment
Also a German speaker, just a clarification for non-German speakers, it
appears to be a compound word neologism (combining two words that have not
been combined before, similar to "frenemy" being derived from "friend"+"enemy"
in English) that combines "Bewunderung"(admiration) and
"Eifersucht"(jealousy). This sort of stuff does work in German, but it looks
odd (and is a noun and should be capitalized anyway).

~~~
codazoda
Bewundersucht

Rolls off the tongue a little better. I dunno if such shortening would happen.
For fun, for example, in a friendly conversation where you make up your own
words like "frenemy". I'm an English speaker with some German training but no
speaking. :)

Edit: Looks like this is used in one place on the Internet and Google actually
translates it "admiration" if used in a sentence.

"können mich mit ihrer eifernden Sehn-, Wunder-, Macht-, Bewundersucht"

"I can with their zealous yearning, wonder, power, admiration"

~~~
erikpukinskis
Sucht without the Eifer just means greed or desire so I don’t think it works.

I think generally English words are pretty quirky in their etymology and
pronunciation which makes them easier to abbreviate. In a more regular,
organized language when you remove part of a word you just get another word.

------
spudlyo
Thank you Julia for dropping knowledge and sharing your infectious enthusiasm
for systems engineering. I hope your work inspires others who have walked the
path of the systems wizard to generously publicly share their experience and
knowledge with others.

------
empath75
Really nothing that most of us do most of the time is very difficult, nor does
it require very much knowledge (except for the sake of productivity)

All that’s required is the ability to decompose problems and systems into
smaller pieces and trace cause and effect. With those two things and a smidge
of domain knowledge and a lot of persistence you can move mountains.

------
rachelbythebay
Good post. Keep asking why. See where it takes you.

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saagarjha
Regardless of the content (which is excellent as usual) I think this is the
best layout of a presentation transcript I've seen.

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WCityMike
The title makes me wonder whether she was a fan of Diane Duane's "So You Want
to Be a Wizard" series, which predated Harry Potter and shows a remarkably
science-based wizardry with much the same mindset towards learning.

------
dougdonohoe
This is some really great stuff. One of my favorite parts of working in
software/computers is "figuring stuff out". My brain always nags "there has to
be a reason for this" ... and doesn't let go until I really understand what
that reason is. That drive to understand the why (and not "magic") has led me
to understand things like JVM garbage collection, ntp (network time protocol),
HTTP, vector graphics, and on and on. Great stuff!

------
hamilyon2
Do unfinished learning projects and "writing keyboard driver" stuff really
helps?

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michaelmcmillan
This was a really cool format for presenting your deck!

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jimhefferon
Cool.

------
peterwwillis
I get that these posts are intentionally written to make it look like a 12
year old wrote them, to give you the idea that it's not too challenging to
understand. But it's a bit of a false premise: children can often pick up new
concepts faster than adults. In addition, you're not going to express the idea
better by putting in exclamation marks, hearts and stars, but you might turn
off people who aren't 12. I'm sure Julia is a wonderful engineer, but I just
find this writing style grating and I give up reading them. (I have the same
reaction to lots of memes splitting up posts)

That said, it's her blog, she should write them however she wants to.

~~~
tptacek
I never once got the impression that Julia was dumbing her presentation down
to a juvenile level to make it more accessible.

Rather, the impression I get is that Julia is as enthusiastic about this stuff
as anyone has ever been about anything, and that she has no pretense of having
known any of it last week, nor does she care if you did.

It's pretty charming and unique combination (it's rare enough that when
status-conscious adults come across it, it reads juvenile!) and is my favorite
thing about the way she writes and presents. When she writes about stuff, she
doesn't have to judge each element she's discussing for whether it's
interesting or worth calling out; it's _all_ interesting. That's a good way to
avoid missing interesting observations, I think.

~~~
kasey_junk
I’d go further. Writing about something you’ve attained understanding of,
without ruining it for new learners is a rare gift.

