Julia EvansAug 8, 2023

what helps people get comfortable on the command line? https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/08/08/what-helps-people-get-comfortable-on-the-command-line-/

Would love more stories of things that helped you in the last ~5 years!

(as usual, no need to reply if you don’t remember, or if you’ve been using the command line comfortably for 15 years — this question isn’t for you :) )

What helps people get comfortable on the command line?

What helps people get comfortable on the command line?

Julia Evans
Show threadJulia EvansAug 8, 2023
(I've gotten really into posting "please don't reply if X Y Z" disclaimers on mastodon for my questions because otherwise I always get a lot of irrelevant replies like "I don't know but here's some speculation" or ”I started using the command line on my apple II” and it's just not helpful. Seems to be working so far!)
Show threadKenny SpadeAug 8, 2023
@b0rk I have appreciated the restrictions being stated and have not replied where I almost fit the question because of them. I especially like it when it is stated as “I’m looking for x to better understand the experience from the point of view from y” so I can understand the reason behind the restrictions.
Show threadJulia Evans

@KennySpade that makes sense! maybe i'll try that. here the reason is that I want tips that are likely to help people learning *today* and what helped someone 20 years ago is less likely to be useful today

(for example someone told me that what helped them 20 years ago was installing Gentoo, which is great, but I think Gentoo is kind of out of style now and I would not recommend it to someone learning in 2023)

all of that is a lot of words though

Aug 8, 2023 at 1:55pmWeb
Show threadKenny SpadeAug 8, 2023
@b0rk for me, just the first bit about what helps people today would be enough. The way my brain works, if I’m told not to do something, I always have to try to figure out why, so a simple reason that makes sense is enough. If a reason isn’t provided, I might subconsciously make one up, and it might not be a good reason or anything close to the actual reason. I was the kid who would never accept “because I said so” as good enough. 😅
Show threadJulia EvansAug 8, 2023
@KennySpade thank you!