1 out of 10

Retired I.T.

Told my family that if they ask me to help with an I.T. related issue, I’ll bring my hammer.

Fuck printers.

8/10.

Software engineer. Respected across a small public tech company. Most folks who do 30 seconds of GitHub snooping are impressed. There’s a decent chance you’ve used code I wrote. Hopefully it keeps working.

No idea how to use Windows. Or mac. Lots of missing network and security stuff. Struggle every time I have to do python package management. Terrified of C++.

3/10

I set up a jellyfin server but when I attempted a raw arch install I wanted to put a gun in my mouth.

I literally have a tech job and tell the people I don’t like tech. It’s a means to an end.

Can’t even attempt terminal beyond downloads and updates. Tried a cli and quickly realized I need a gui. I am not a robot.

I am good at technology even when I don’t do anything.

There’s a client who says that if I just join a call and do nothing but say hello, things that weren’t working just suddenly start working for no apparent reason.

12/10. I’m good at the cyber.

1/10

Im not really one to think twice before doing something. My Homelab is literally „dont move, break things”, im lazy as fuck, I even left my TrueNAS mirrored pool as degraded for a week now because I can’t bother to read the manpages for zfs and read why my newly bought drives are getting checksum errors, and I backup anyway to Hetzner and Synology anyway. I broke at least 3 opensuse PCs trying to update without checking my available space first, and didn’t bother to switch to leap afterwards (since they can go with less updates, they’re just Netflix and IPTV clients). My record is 4 times in a row. Luckily fedora Atomic removed my competence from the equation. And I won’t even mention the many times I sloppily migrated my PCs from Ubuntu, Opensuse, to Nobara because I was anti Atomic distros, to arch, opensuse again, arch, artix, Gentoo, and now back to Bazzite.

But to be honest, that was when I was between 13-16, but now a month later I already feel the responsibility in me. (Except that Zfs thing, I got those drives for my birthday)

3/10 too.

Linux IS hard to use, especially when you try to do something you never can on Windows.

I spent this morning trying to fix the WiFi driver on my laptop and ended up using USB-LAN adapter.

Also, I tried to run Ente Photos on Coolify on said laptop and I couldn’t. Luckily there was a preset for immich so I used it instead.

Linux is hard. Computer is hard and it should be.

I’m a B.

Probably around 4-6. I know the basics and can do a few other things after using resources from Google/YouTube, but there’s times where I stare at a problem and feel like I became my parents who can’t figure out how to make a window take up the whole screen.

7/10

9.5; I worked on machine learning starting in 2016 and lead teams working on new cryptography. That being said, I’ve met tons of people wayyyy more skilled/“good” than I am. But if we are comparing to the general public, at least a 9.5

Hmm… Well… Let’s see about all the things I can do:

• I can pirate on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh. I don’t consider it difficult.
• I can install an operating on various mediums, and used to carry a Linux OS (forgot which distro) on a thumb drive with all my stuff on it to use on library computers (used to be poor and homeless. This is how I practiced Blender3D).
• I have built my own PC, and built PCs for a lot of my friends and family.
• I know how to bypass admin security on Windows XP.
• I have and still do mod games, even ones without easy modding support. I do this on Linux.
• I troubleshoot and fix my own problems, should I run into any. This included opening up hardware.
• I’m currently in the process of learning coding for the creation of games in Godot.

All of this and I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of technology. So in consideration of the skill that exists with tech, the the 10-scale being used, I’d say my skill in tech is:

2 out of 10.

I’ve studied a bit of solid state physics and I’ve worked in different tech industries for a while. Dabbled with a bunch of stuff professionally: optics, microcontrollers, motors, fluidics, web, LLMs.

So… 5/10?

Depends on the tech:
I can do most things on Linux, both at home and at work. And the latter pays me handsomely for it.

I’m OK with windows. I was good decades ago, and the things I am still a Le to do rely on experience way back when.

I still don’t know how to right click on a Mac.

9.9/10

If I’m not interested then you can get 5/10 advice for free just to be polite.

Skill is not knowledge, it’s the ability and hardheadedness to acquire knowledge kicking and screaming to make the world bend to your will so that the printer will actually print.