Back to Basics

Recently I’ve been dabbling in digital twins. A 12 hour, AI assisted, escapade into reconfiguring Trellis to run on Blackwell architecture brought a small (pronounced HUGE) knowledge gap to my attention. Did I get it working? Yes, software eventually works (hardware eventually breaks). Did I know why? Kind of – buncha dependencies and stuff. Theoretically, having graduated with a Master’s in Computer and Information Technology, I should be able to figure it out. But you know.. time and stuff – needed to get the road on the show.

But that was the straw that broke this camel’s back. I’ve been Claude-coding a bit too hard recently. Well maybe that’s not the right way to put it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been absolutely LOVING it. It’s accelerated my software building significantly – you can now start and never complete so many more side quest projects! And it’s reignited my thirst for knowledge. Now that I can move faster, I want to learn more too. Apparently I love school. Actually that’s not true – I despised when someone told me what to learn and when to learn it, then had the audacity to test me on it. BUT only on topics I didn’t feel were important at that moment – because apparently I knew better. Being older and wiser, I’ve come to realize I might not (TBD..). I’ve gone through a couple phases this year where I was convinced I wanted to go back for a PhD, even scouting programs and advisors, putting out feelers for letters of recommendation. Not because I actually wanted to pursue and advanced degree and academic excellence, just because I wanted more keyboard time and be surrounded by like minded people – I would dread the actual class part (probably).

SO instead, I’ve just decided to read some books and blog about them here – a bit less extreme but still pretty impactful. First on the docket: Computer Systems, A Programmer’s Perspective. What a thriller, huh? Well, it is for me.

Chapter 1 was a real page turner for me. This is the book I wish I read in grad school when it came to computer systems. It explicitly says the things I needed someone to tell me in order to make sense of how a computer actually worked. Now, I recognized that may not be fair since it’s my second time seeing the material, and this time I actually care – I wasn’t trying to get assignments done late at night with a migraine while trying to vacation with a 2 year old. It’s a little more chill this time. Just the explanation of what it takes for a computer to run a “hello world” program in C was a real eye opener. The first chapter is a quick tour outlining the rest of the book, which can be found online. With all the Asides and talking about Unix and Linux, I will most likely be side questing.

Everything in Unix being a “file” makes sense – processes are reading and writing to and from files, controllers are interpreting those files, and the devices are operating based on those interpretations. I now see why DHH is so excited about this OS and running Agents. His first interview with Lex Friedman was inspirational and motivating. His second interview with Lex put me in action mode. I installed Omarchy right away and have been flying since – still not gonna use Neovim tho..