As usual, "new things" do not know, "gurus" are silent

The title cites a comment (with the original spelling preserved), which prompted me to write this topic.

I met with linux many years ago. And for me there was only one person whom I can in some sense consider to be my “guru”. At that time I knew DOS well, very superficially OS / 2 and Win3.1, I kept my BBS and was a node in Fido. In general, the command line itself was superficially appealing to me, but ... otherwise, my experience was absolutely useless. And he worked as an admin with a local provider.

I managed to persuade him to come to me, and put a linux. (It was some kind of Slackware.) So I can see how this is done. (By the way, in those days, installing Slackware and now installing Ubuntu or RHEL is, as they say, two very different differences!) Well, I showed something on the little things, until the beer was all over. And there was a lot of beer - the points dragged to their node, the BBS users sysop, and I, in two faces, could not drink so much physically. :)

I never saw him again. For he was lazy, like all admins - bumming him to run for me. And I'm also lazy - I have a bummer to roam for him. For I, too, about dmin was, albeit a beginner, lo! :)
')
But we talked to him. He gave me an account on his server, and there was (although she probably is now) such a utility, talk. It was necessary for the who command to see if it was logged in and in which consoles, and then tell talk tty that. And it was a cool chat! There was (and is) a write command. Which allowed me to send him to any of the consoles question. And he wrote the same answer to me. This is how it is. And ICQ then still was not.

I hope you have the atmosphere. It remains to add a small touch - our communication was very short, I think, two or three months ... and most of his answers were: RTFM . He explained the meaning of this letter combination to me, but for some time I tried to understand how it all the same stands for English. At some point, I guessed: " Read This Fucking Manual ". Only then I did not understand why he laughed a lot when I proudly informed him about this. :)

Everything. I have no more teachers. By the way, I got the Internet much later. And access to irc, chat rooms and forums where you can ask a question and get an answer from at least someone (and not the fact that the correct one, by the way) - after a few more years. By the way, Google, too, then nebylo. But there was av.com, baby. :)

Then I was very upset and annoyed by his unwillingness to answer questions normally, without this idiotic RTFM. And I didn’t understand why he answered normal questions to some questions, and sent RTFMit to others. And this misunderstanding irritated even more. BUT! Now I am deeply grateful to him for this! I am absolutely sure that if he acted as I wanted, and clearly answered the questions, I would now know and know how much less. And I would still ask questions, and did not answer them.

Therefore, if the “gurus are silent” - tell them thanks for that. And if you were sent to four letters RTFM - tell them many thanks. It is because of this that you have a chance to become a guru yourself, and not to go to eternal students. Angry, resent, argue - for it is really annoying - but say thank you. Not out loud, as I am now, but quietly, to myself.