Tinkering and Linux (postscript)
I’m finding that this tinkering admin work is a craft that, while perhaps not my primary direction, is not without its pleasures. The depth to which we can pursue and immerse ourselves in studying this sort of technology is essentially limitless. With linux this is as deep as I’ve ever been. When I am learning a new piece of the puzzle like LVM or fsck or mysql, I like to think about all the people who have independently contributed to designing and creating these various tools that cumulatively form such a powerful, flexible system. So much work, so many hours, and so many intelligent ideas have formed linux. It is so big now that I doubt any single individual can understand the whole. I find this complexity surprisingly comforting. We’re moving away from the computer science and engineering paradigm of the abstracted, closed, controlled system, and towards something new, more along the lines of the messy, chaotic, interconnected realm of the natural and social sciences. Or, more accurately, the real world.