I don’t know about you, but I get a kick out of learning something new. It can be a small fact, a new way of doing something I’ve been doing the same way for years, or just trying something for the sake of it. Either way, recent observations in my life and work have been pushing me towards one clear thought: we need to reclaim the simple joy of discovery.
Insight: What you don’t know can help you
In the past month, I’ve found myself leaning hard into the same muscle that drove my younger self to learn everything I could get my hands on. This time, it’s been largely work-related, but honestly, that’s okay. There’s something special about being able to put what you love into your work. We don’t have to do what we love to make a living, nor does making a living mean we can’t f…
I don’t know about you, but I get a kick out of learning something new. It can be a small fact, a new way of doing something I’ve been doing the same way for years, or just trying something for the sake of it. Either way, recent observations in my life and work have been pushing me towards one clear thought: we need to reclaim the simple joy of discovery.
Insight: What you don’t know can help you
In the past month, I’ve found myself leaning hard into the same muscle that drove my younger self to learn everything I could get my hands on. This time, it’s been largely work-related, but honestly, that’s okay. There’s something special about being able to put what you love into your work. We don’t have to do what we love to make a living, nor does making a living mean we can’t find new ways of loving what we do.
We’ve trained ourselves so well in eliminating uncertainty that we often forget how much we can gain from stumbling into solutions just-so-happening to fix problems. Sometimes the best and most satisfying discoveries are the ones you didn’t expect. “Not knowing” isn’t always a flaw we have to hide, or scramble to fix. In fact, it’s best looked at as a signal that there’s room to grow.
The “unknown” isn’t always a threat to productivity, nor a risk to be managed. It can also be where we find our greatest delights in the otherwise monotonous act of living.
To give a quick example, I was facing some challenges running a terminal emulator (yeah, I know, I just lost like... 50% of you the moment I said terminal), GhosTTY, on my laptop, which runs Ubuntu. I’d been using virtualization solutions for a while — VirtualBox and GNOME Boxes, especially the latter — as of recently, but I wanted something that felt more native. That’s when I decided to bite the bullet and do some digging on something I’d only heard about but never bothered to try: Distrobox.
But that’s not where the real discovery happened. What started as a quest to find a solution to run one app turned into a series of new discoveries as I ended up trying multiple apps in quick succession. I found Distroshelf on Flathub, which made setting up Distrobox a breeze, experimented a bit with Podman and some Docker tricks (separately), and ultimately decided to just stick with what I have for now. But what I picked up along the way is still invaluable for future reference, and that’s what made this experience beautiful.
Reclaiming the joy of discovery means giving yourself permission to dive into the unknown, and admit “I don’t know what I’m doing,” and treat that not as a verdict, but an invitation.
Practical Tip: Let yourself learn something new
I know we don’t always have the time or the energy for big endeavours, but learning doesn’t always have to be big. Every time you look out your window, you have an opportunity. See that bird sitting in a tree? Watch it a little more closely. You might learn something from the way it sings. Talking to a friend? Ask them what they think of a topic you’ve never brought up before.
Every new interaction with information you’ve never had is a valid learning experience, just like picking up a book you’ve never read or searching for "How do I fix my toaster after spilling water all over it?"
Okay, this didn’t happen to me, but now you’re thinking about it, right? Maybe you can tell me in the comments?
Here’s what I’ve published recently:
It’s FOSS
Is Helium the Browser Brave Was Meant to Be? A hands-on look at Helium, a privacy-focused Chromium-based browser that keeps Manifest V2, bundles uBlock Origin, and adds clever touches like built-in bangs without turning into bloat. → https://itsfoss.com/helium-browser/
5 Signs You Have Become a Linux Power User A practical, self-aware checklist of habits that show you’re levelling up on Linux—from troubleshooting and backups to responsible distro-hopping and helping others in the community. → https://itsfoss.com/linux-power-user-signs/
9 GUI Search Tools for Desktop Linux Users Who Don’t Want to Use Find, Grep and Xargs Commands A tour of desktop-friendly search apps that give you powerful file and full-text search without needing to remember long terminal commands. → https://itsfoss.com/linux-gui-search-tools/
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Thanks for reading. Catch you in the next Roll Out! — Roland L. Taylor