What if you forgot EVERYTHING? - Re-Learning IT after MEMORY LOSS w/ Shawn Powers | Linux | CCNA

NetworkChuck Technology Careers Career & Money

About this video

An interview with Sean Powers, a CBT Nuggets trainer and Linux/DevOps expert, about losing his memory and relearning IT from zero. Powers recounts going to Michigan Tech to study electrical engineering because it paid well, then skipping his engineering classes (Calc 3 was the breaking point) for the computer lab in 1993–94, dropping out, and landing a tech support job at a community college helping people install Trumpet Winsock. Driving to work one day, his car went off the road and his head went through the side passenger window; he says everything before March of 1999 simply does not exist for him — no childhood memories, even though he was married with a two-year-old child. Unable to work and agoraphobic after the head injury, he hit rock bottom: his wife, very pregnant with their second child, bussed tables to pay for food while they slept on a mattress on the floor at his mother-in-law’s house. His fingers still knew how to type, but he did not know how to open a window on a computer. Linux became his operating system, he explains, not from philosophy but because it was free and he could afford nothing else — not even books. He installed the ‘Halloween’ version of Red Hat from floppy disks and learned purely by doing, in an era before easy online searching. He went on to become a CBT Nuggets trainer and a Linux Journal contributor. Chuck draws the lesson he repeats throughout: no excuses — anyone watching on a computer with internet access starts ahead of where Powers did, can learn Linux free right now, and, per Chuck’s look at LinkedIn and Dice, Linux engineer/admin skills are a rarer, more lucrative path than the more familiar Windows admin route.

Key takeaways

Sean Powers lost all memory from before March 1999 in a car accident and had to relearn computing from not knowing how to open a window.
He chose Linux because it was free — he could afford neither commercial software nor books — and learned it by installing Red Hat from floppy disks and simply doing it.
His pre-accident path was self-directed: he skipped engineering classes at Michigan Tech for the computer lab and learned networking on his own before dropping out.
The interview’s core message is that lack of money, credentials, or starting knowledge is not an excuse, since today’s learners have free resources Powers never had.
Chuck frames Linux administration as a rarer and lucrative skill compared with Windows administration, because fewer people use Linux as their everyday desktop.

Episode details: published November 23, 2018 · 12:51 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

All NetworkChuck videos · NetworkChuck profile · NetworkChuck on YouTube