Reading 10: Birth of a Nerd OS
Reading about Linus’s obsession with computers and programming at a young age is laughably similar to how I grew up. While Linus had his grandfather introduce him to his Commodore Vic 20, I had my older brother hand off his Gameboy SP with a copy of Pokémon Emerald to me. I could barely read the dialogue when I first booted it up, but that did little to stop me from trying. After my first taste of video games, I was hooked for life. That little influence created a life-long interest in games and computers, culminating in my choice of computer science for a major. Although I had a little more variation in extra-curriculars and hobbies, I would confidently say I spent enough hours behind a computer to qualify as a geek as a kid. It is pretty cool to know that Linus started from a similar path and created a project that is so impactful in the world today. I found Linus’s note about finding interesting classes easy and others loathsome to be particularly relatable. I had an especially ha...