Does Linus have any Certifications like CCNA, A+ etc

[M226]

i am currently in school working to get my ccna A+ certifications and i still dont understand how linus understands every part of a PC from the tiny microprocessors to being able to use an AC as a Cooler, how does he know about and know how to do all of this

 

[Lurick]

Research, google is your friend. Don't forget time and experience can lead to remembering a lot of stuff too and when you are in the same space for a while you pick things up quicker. PLUS the fact that videos are not just off the cuff in most situations, they are scripted and researched in advance.

[trag1c]

No idea if he has any certs but the vast majority of this information is freely available. You can learn a lot just by researching. 

[Egg-Roll]

4 minutes ago, M226 said:

i am currently in school working to get my ccna A+ certifications and i still dont understand how linus understands every part of a PC from the tiny microprocessors to being able to use an AC as a Cooler, how does he know about and know how to do all of this

 

It's called a teleprompter without that he's no different than Elon Musk and SpaceX... He'll learn things by being around people but by no means is he able to tell you about it without help.

[Lurick]

Plus a certification doesn't mean shit other than you memorized enough stuff and could apply it properly to the test in that moment. Beyond that they aren't worth much aside getting past HR filters. Sure, you SHOULD, pick things up from getting a cert to apply them better once you get on the job but they don't give you magic powers and just holding them alone doesn't make you an expert.

[manikyath]

linus is a dropout.

 

as for how he knows his stuff, few things:

- he's been deeply interested in tech ever since the 386 was the hottest processor.

- he's got several years of experience working for a major retailer

- he's got several years of tech youtuber experience

- he's got a bunch of staff to do the intricate bits he has no idea about, so he can just read off the teleptompter on set.

 

take it from someone who is microsoft certified, and working with the products he's certified for every day: certifications are FREAKING useless compared to just experiencing what you have to deal with.

[Egg-Roll]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

- he's got several years of experience working for a major retailer

Walk into any Canada Computers and this will be proven to be a meaningless statement lol... Esp higher up you go in the chain.

Trust me NCIX, at least in Ontario was no better, they are sales driven not knowledge... I wouldn't trust a single thing younger Linus working at NCIX would have said unless I researched it myself before asking and double checking with them before purchase. Tho that is still good practice today, so you don't get screwed by corporate greed and sales numbers...

 

I was in the local CC not to long ago where they were hawking about a 2060 (not super I think) trying to push a sale with a 6600XT right next to it...

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Egg-Roll said:

Walk into any Canada Computers and this will be proven to be a meaningless statement lol... Esp higher up you go in the chain.

Trust me NCIX, at least in Ontario was no better, they are sales driven not knowledge... I wouldn't trust a single thing younger Linus working at NCIX would have said unless I researched it myself before asking and double checking with them before purchase. Tho that is still good practice today, so you don't get screwed by corporate greed and sales numbers...

 

I was in the local CC not to long ago where they were hawking about a 2060 (not super I think) trying to push a sale with a 6600XT right next to it...

that's more a people issue than a place issue.

 

if you put a clueless retard in product management they arent suddenly going to become mastermind.

but if you put someone with an understanding for hardware in a place filled with hardware, that's huge opportunity to collect knowledge.

[LAwLz]

38 minutes ago, M226 said:

i still dont understand how linus understands every part of a PC from the tiny microprocessors to being able to use an AC as a Cooler, how does he know about and know how to do all of this

He doesn't.

Linus' knowledge is fairly wide when it comes to consumer electronics but it is as shallow as a kiddy pool.

 

Even the content in his videos, where he mostly just reads from a script that is often written by other people, is rather basic and certainly does not show an understanding of how things actually work on a more technical level.

Knowing that the CPU is the "brain of the computer" is not exactly a remarkable feat. Neither is reading the reviewer guide and then running some benchmarks.

 

He might know to how identify a good processor because he knows what it should be good at, but he does not understand why it is good or how to design a good processor. He might be able to identify a good picture from a smartphone because he has seen a lot, but he does not know what goes into making a camera take a good picture. 

 

Linus' skills are building a company, coming up with fun ideas for videos and delivering prewritten content with (in my opinion) unwarranted confidence.

 

Make no mistake. Linus is a good entertainer and a good salesman, but he is by no means an engineer or a scholar.

 

Edit: And I don't say this to dismiss his achievements. Being a good entertainer and salesman are achievements in their own rights. All I am saying is that ti should not be mistaken for something it isn't.

[Egg-Roll]

12 minutes ago, manikyath said:

that's more a people issue than a place issue.

 

if you put a clueless retard in product management they arent suddenly going to become mastermind.

but if you put someone with an understanding for hardware in a place filled with hardware, that's huge opportunity to collect knowledge.

Can't one argue it's both? It's the responsibility of the company to hire competent people correct?

 

Yes but if that clueless person knows how to sell swamp land as prime real-estate they will make you a butt ton of money, hence no incentive to hire competent people who know things. There's a reason why NCIX went under (and why Linus left before hand), just because he worked in the industry doesn't mean he learned a damn thing from being there about the products outside of the basics that Google could have easily taught you as well. Trust me, I saw NCIX fall just like Linus... They went from good to shit, almost over night it seemed.

 

True, but that doesn't mean sales necessarily, for example if I walked in acting like a complete numpty I would be taken for a ride buying the most profitable crap on the shelves, at either NCIX or CC even when/where Linus worked. Why? Knowledge doesn't produce numbers, selling the most profitable item (aka the i9 series with top tier board ram and gpu) is... So someone who knows how to hawk crap will have higher sales but lower customer satisfaction (doesn't mater when you basically dominate the walk-in PC components industry, they'll be back), vs someone who knows a lot will possibly waste time with each customer getting to know what they want to do etc with higher customer satisfaction but lower sales number which the company does not like. Simply put a knowledgeable person would likely be sacked due to poor sales.

[Windows7ge]

Sort of adding to Lurick's comments. Certs will help you get you foot in the door but outside of the very specific topic the cert covers such as the CompTIA A+ cert for CCNA which predominately covers fundamental configurations of CISCO switches & routers. Once you're in a company your cert can be practically useless if you enter a company to find they only use Dell or Netgear hardware.

 

Taking the time on your own to learn all of the necessary iEEE standards, open routing protocols like RIP & OSPF, the ISO model, and how to configure things like VLAN's and ACL's would be all of the useful information you need in that application. Everything else CISCO proprietary is out the window useless.

 

Watching Linus in years long gone when they operated out of their house there was less of a script and more of a hand-on learning approach where Linus simply figured things out by having a need for something and taking the time to research it. Something that has to be understood is that schools don't teach you everything. You have to teach yourself a lot of things that schools won't and that's a lot of Linus's knowledge.

 

This is also something I strongly relate to.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

43 minutes ago, M226 said:

i am currently in school working to get my ccna A+ certifications and i still dont understand how linus understands every part of a PC from the tiny microprocessors to being able to use an AC as a Cooler, how does he know about and know how to do all of this

Curiosity and research.

[Needfuldoer]

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

that's more a people issue than a place issue.

 

if you put a clueless retard in product management they arent suddenly going to become mastermind.

but if you put someone with an understanding for hardware in a place filled with hardware, that's huge opportunity to collect knowledge.

That’s just it. You have to have the curiosity and drive to know more, just opportunity alone doesn’t make an expert. 
 

You pick up on a few things after a few decades, as long as your interest doesn’t wane. 
 

A smart person also knows what they don’t know, and seeks a way to cover that gap by either learning themselves or deferring to someone with more expertise. 

[Rysters Tech]

1 hour ago, M226 said:

i am currently in school working to get my ccna A+ certifications and i still dont understand how linus understands every part of a PC from the tiny microprocessors to being able to use an AC as a Cooler, how does he know about and know how to do all of this

 

Thing is, Linus does not remember everything or know how to do everything LMG does in their videos, he knows alot about pc's, but in other areas, such as things like refrigeration or doing thinks like CAD development or overclocking a ti-84 calculator, you have to keep in mind he has employees like Alex, Jake  and Brian The Electrician, he's electrifying, and helpful! Such a helpful man!  to help him in the creation of the videos we watch, don't for a minute think that he is doing this 100% by himself, the truth is quite the opposite,

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

Sort of adding to Lurick's comments. Certs will help you get you foot in the door but outside of the very specific topic the cert covers such as the CompTIA A+ cert for CCNA which predominately covers fundamental configurations of CISCO switches & routers. Once you're in a company your cert can be practically useless if you enter a company to find they only use Dell or Netgear hardware.

This is total and utter rubbish.

Cisco has historically been very good with teaching the fundamentals and they are applicable regardless of which hardware you're running. I obviously can't speak for all their certs, but ~90% of what you are tested for on a CCNA exam is the same regardless of which vendor you run. OSPF does not operate differently on an Aruba router compared to a Cisco router.

 

It's like saying a drivers license is useless if you happened to take it in a Ford, because you might have a Volkswagen in the future.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

Taking the time on your own to learn all of the necessary iEEE standards, open routing protocols like RIP & OSPF, the ISO model, and how to configure things like VLAN's and ACL's would be all of the useful information you need in that application. Everything else CISCO proprietary is out the window useless.

I can tell that you don't have a CCNA cert, because RIP, OSPF, the ISO model, BGP and all other open standards are covered in the exam and study material.

 

 

Here are the chapters in the official CCNA R&S study guide from when I took it. I have added a * to any chapter that includes Cisco proprietary stuff. The chapters that don't have an Asterix in front of them are open standards that will work 99% the same regardless of which vendor you got:

Spoiler

Exploring the Functions of Networking

Understanding the Host-to-Host Communication Model

Introducing LANs

*Operating Cisco IOS Software

Starting a Switch

Understanding Ethernet and Switch Operation

Troubleshooting Common Switch Media Issues

 

Understanding the TCP/IP Internet Layer

Understanding IP Addressing and Subnets

Understanding the TCP(IP Transport Layer

Exploring the Functions of Routing

*Configuring a Cisco Router

Exploring the Packet Delivery Process

Enabling Static Routing

Learning Basics of ACL

Enabling Internet Connectivity

 

Implementing and Troubleshooting VLANs and Trunks

Building Redundant Switched Topologies

Improving Redundant Switched Topologies with EtherChannel

Routing Between VLANs

*Using a Cisco IOS Network Device as a DHCP Server

*Understanding Layer 3 Redundancy (talks about HSRP, but mentions VRRP which functions almost identically and is an open standard)

Implementing RIPv2

 

Introducing Basic IPv6

Understanding IPv6 Operation

Configuring IPv6 Static Routes

 

Troubleshooting IPv4 Network Connectivity

Troubleshooting IPv6 Network Connectivity

 

Securing Administrative Access (partially Cisco proprietary since you want to do most of these things regardless of vendor, but the study guide talks about how to do it on Cisco equipment)

Implementing Device Hardening

Implementing Advanced Security

 

*Implementing EIGRP

*Implementing EIGRP for IPv6

*Troubleshooting EIGRP

 

Understanding OSPF

Implementing Multiarea OSPF IPv4

Implementing OSPFv3 for IPv6

Troubleshooting Multiarea OSPF

 

Understanding WAN Technologies

Understanding Point-to-Point Protocols

Configuring GRE Tunnels

Configuring Single-Homed EBGP

 

Implementing Basic Network Device Management

*Learning About the Evolution of Intelligent Networks

Introducing QoS

*Managing Cisco Devices

*Licensing

 

47 chapters and only 10 of them are about Cisco-specific things. Even then, the Cisco specific chapters are things that are good to know about other vendors as well. For example if you know how HSRP works then you also know how VRRP (open standard) works, and the chapter about HSRP even mentions this.

The chapter about configuring a Cisco router contains a bunch of things that you want to do on any platform, but the chapter is specifically about how to do it on a Cisco device. You want to set up SSH access to your switches regardless of if it's a Cisco or Aruba switch, but since it's a Cisco course and it differs from vendor to vendor, it will of course tell you how to do it on a Cisco device. The procedure is like 90% the same regardless of which switch brand you got though.

 

 

Why is it that whenever this topic comes up, regarding certs and the likes, a bunch of people who always comes out that have very strong options about it even though they have no understanding or experience regarding them?

 

As far as I know, there isn't even a cert called "CompTIA A+ cert for CCNA", so it seems like you didn't even get the name of the cert you are critiquing correctly. Are you talking about CCNA, or CompTIA? They are two different certs.

[Eaglerino]

1 hour ago, Egg-Roll said:

It's called a teleprompter without that he's no different than Elon Musk and SpaceX... He'll learn things by being around people but by no means is he able to tell you about it without help.

buddy what that's how everyone learns and he used to do one-take videos with no script and very much knew what he was talking about (for the purposes of what his videos were meant to show)

[Windows7ge]

8 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

This is total and utter rubbish.

Based on how I see you interact with others on the forum, your SU's, and your general overall personality I really have zero interest in starting a debate with you over the validity of CCNA & CompTIA A+ certs.

 

12 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I can tell that you don't have a CCNA cert, because RIP, OSPF, the ISO model, BGP and all other open standards are covered in the exam and study material.

I took the CompTIA A+ certification exam for CCENT, took and passed the class for CCNA. Didn't waste my time with that CompTIA A+ due to my dissatisfaction with the one for CCENT.

 

And the reason I listed these items is BECAUSE they're the open standards, BECAUSE you can research this easily without having to turn to college, CISCO courses, and certs all of which don't come free/cheap for most people. If your career path requires it. Fine. I have no issue there. If it doesn't you can save a lot just teaching yourself which is basically what Linus spent years doing.

 

The statement I'm making in relation to OP's question is that you don't have to have certifications to be intelligent in a topic.

[Egg-Roll]

6 minutes ago, Eaglerino said:

buddy what that's how everyone learns and he used to do one-take videos with no script and very much knew what he was talking about (for the purposes of what his videos were meant to show)

buddy that isn't how everyone learns, there are at least 2 types of learning study and hands on... Give me a book with stuff in it about almost anything and I'll literally ask you if you want me to beat you over the head with it, instead of reading it trying to understand it. Equally no script one takes? Sure, maybe on camera, but realistically? Do you think someone even Linus would really walk in knowing little to F all about what they intend to talk about and do a one take video? If you believe that I have prime swamp land that you can build the 55 million dollar mansion (I'll literally pay for it, even tho I don't have swamp land nor the money) you want on it and it wont sink, EVER! If you somehow have proof of your claims of him not practicing pre-recording from his past videos please do display evidence, creeper/stalker, because realistically that's the only way you would know if he just walked in front of a camera yoloing the video.

 

I remember some of his old videos they had notes on paper, he would review them likely beforehand as well, nothing with his videos were YOLO outside of live stream, but even those had a goal and talking points.

 

TL;TR is anyone who has done business, sales, or marketing (you clearly haven't) knows the best person to present shit is the one who can remember the shit that needs to be presented with or (best) without notes or key points written down, and can present it in a fashion that people will be willing to listen to. So sure he one took videos with or without notes, but don't fool yourself he was prepared before that record button was hit, most informed? No, but prepared to the best of his abilities? Yes. The point is because he can confidentially speak in a single take even back then doesn't mean he knew his stuff, let alone remember it now. No one I repeat NO ONE who took/takes YouTube seriously has ever walking in front of a camera (or mic) and spewed what they knew without preplanning to some degree, well at least channels like LTT etc. Gaming and alike channels frequently YOLO their stuff then once popular they start tuning their videos for views, you can see this with channels like GreyStillPlays where a few years ago he would randomly play games to preselected ones that have proven best for content and fast to produce with lots of personal stuff being left out. Another is lets game it out, tho he is more freelancing his videos, but he still has a plan/goal in mind.

[Needfuldoer]

Certifications can mean anything from "I know this stuff inside out and backward" to "I rote-memorized the right answers to regurgitate at the test".

 

I "only" have an A+ (from back when they were good for life), but I've learned far more about computer hardware from messing around with it than I did from any of the training materials or study books. Likewise, I understand networking, and I know how to configure switches and routers from the command line, but I don't have a CCNA. (At the time, it was too much of an expense to drop on something that needs to be renewed every three years.) I fell into professional video instead, which comes with its own buttload of complexities, acronyms, and greybeard folklore that have little to do with my degree. At this point in my life I've been doing that far longer than I was in school for IT and networking, but I still like to mess with fun computer stuff.

 

It's like they sometimes tell you at the end of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course: "Congratulations, now you know how to ride around in circles in an empty parking lot."

 

All certs and no practical knowledge make Jack into this guy:

 

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

And the reason I listed these items is BECAUSE they're the open standards, BECAUSE you can research this easily without having to turn to college, CISCO courses, and certs all of which don't come free/cheap for most people.

Right! In a world full of used CCNA books where GNS3 exists, the barrier to entry is lower than it's ever been! 

 

2 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I obviously can't speak for all their certs, but ~90% of what you are tested for on a CCNA exam is the same regardless of which vendor you run.

Most of the big-vendor gear is similar, because everybody copies Cisco. The command line interface on old Brocade gear for example is basically Cisco IOS with a few commands rephrased. Everyine has their own stacking protocols, but in general you can sit down behind most enterprise gear and figure it out pretty quickly if you're familiar with at least one other vendor. (That is, unless all your experience is with web GUIs or Ubiquiti.)

[Windows7ge]

11 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

All certs and no practical knowledge make Jack into this guy:

The best way I can put it is I'm not saying certs are useless. They help depending on your circumstances/situation, but when I take a CompTIA  A+ exam and all it does is ask me to recall the answers to different sections of the class material without actually pressuring my ability to troubleshoot various real life scenarios then it's just a useless piece of paper that will expire in 3 years and won't actually prepare me for a real job (as your meme so accurately explains).

 

Can it be the ticket to getting you the job? Yes, but that's not always a good thing if you still don't know what you're doing.

 

This is why I didn't go for A+ for CCNA. I'd rather spend the money on a used server and teach myself something actually useful. Linux & UNIX offer a virtually limitless number of routes to explore and learn which turn into actual skills you can apply in real life.

[Needfuldoer]

17 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Can it be the ticket to getting you the job? Yes, but that's not always a good thing if you still don't know what you're doing.

Exactly. Certifications in and of themselves don't mean a whole lot. They should be pursued to give provenance to "I know what I'm doing", not just so you can say "this says I know what I'm doing".

 

18 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

They help depending on your circumstances/situation, but when I take a CompTIA  A+ exam and all it does is ask me to recall the answers to different sections of the class material without actually pressuring my ability to troubleshoot various real life scenarios then it's just a useless piece of paper that will expire in 3 years and won't actually prepare me for a real job (as your meme so accurately explains).

My useless piece of paper never expires, thankyouverymuch. 

[Windows7ge]

3 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

My useless piece of paper never expires, thankyouverymuch. 

Lucky. Mine was only good until 2016~2017 by which time I had a dual socket hypervisor server in my basement teaching me new things far beyond the cert.

[jurian123]

Always keep improving yourself remember in IT. Doing nothing is taking a step backwards. 

Dont know if Linus has any prob not

 

 

[LAwLz]

7 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

And the reason I listed these items is BECAUSE they're the open standards, BECAUSE you can research this easily without having to turn to college, CISCO courses, and certs all of which don't come free/cheap for most people. If your career path requires it. Fine. I have no issue there. If it doesn't you can save a lot just teaching yourself which is basically what Linus spent years doing.

Maybe I misunderstood your post, but the way I interpret it was essentially "don't study for the CCNA, it won't be relevant if you don't use Cisco equipment" which can't be further from the truth. 90% of the CCNA is extremely relevant regardless of which vendor you use, which was my entire point.

 

 

7 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

And the reason I listed these items is BECAUSE they're the open standards, BECAUSE you can research this easily without having to turn to college, CISCO courses, and certs all of which don't come free/cheap for most people. If your career path requires it. Fine. I have no issue there. If it doesn't you can save a lot just teaching yourself which is basically what Linus spent years doing.

I don't think you understand the point of certificates are, and you are mixing "getting cert" and "studying for certs" into one thing when they are completely different.

 

 

If you want to learn the basics of networking, you study for the CCNA. It doesn't have to cost a cent, because there are fantastic resources freely available online. So don't say "don't study for the CCNA because it costs money", it doesn't. You can self-study for the CCNA and you don't even have to take the certification test if you don't want to. My point is that you talk about how studying for the CCNA costs money and is full of proprietary stuff, when neither one of those things are true.

Studying for the CCNA can be free, and it certainly does not cover a bunch of proprietary stuff. Even the stuff it covers that is proprietary is still extremely relevant for other vendors. As I mentioned earlier, things like HSRP (which is proprietary) is so similar to VRRP (open standard) that if you know one of them then you understand the other too.

 

As for taking certificates, I feel like a lot of people in this thread don't understand their purpose and therefore just makes a bunch of incorrect assumptions.

Certificates validates your knowledge. Having or not having a certificate does not magically grant you a certain level of knowledge, but you can be sure that someone who has a certificate at least has a certain degree of it. The people advocating for self study instead of getting certificates are basically saying "why does a teacher need to do and correct tests? Why not just let the students estimate which grade they should get themselves?".

 

People constantly overestimate their own knowledge and understanding of things, and they don't know what is important to know. Asking someone who is self-taught to evaluate their own knowledge is like asking a kid in 9th grade to give himself his own grades. He will most likely give himself a way higher grade than he deserves. There is a chance that he actually deserves the grade he assign himself, but without a third party validating it we don't know if he does. The most likely scenario is not that he correctly assign himself the correct grade. The most likely scenario is that he overestimates his own knowledge and gives himself too high of a grade.

 

 

Also, certificates are not useless. I am honestly amazed that some people in this thread who claim to be consultants says certificates are useless. They are most certainly not, especially not for consultants. Not only are certificates from for example Cisco a requirement to meet certain partnership statuses, which directly correlates to things like what rebates you can get, but they are also a big part of what determines the price you can charge for your time.

 

Right now, I got 5 Cisco certificates and a couple of certs from other vendors like Palo Alto. Every time I got a cert, it was brought up while negotiating a higher salary. The certs I got were also used when negotiating the pricing for my time with my clients.

 

 

The amount of misinformation about certs, what they are and why they are important is astonishing. It really isn't a hard concept to grasp if people would just look at them objectively and not with jealousy. The people who go "hurr durr I got experience so your cert doesn't matter" are most likely the same ones who did poorly in school and blamed it on the teacher/tests rather than take one second to reflect on their themselves. Then when they got older they get stuck with some job and then get even more recentment when they see some bright new employee get promoted or a higher salary even though they have fewer years of experience.

[cmndr]

11 hours ago, M226 said:

i am currently in school working to get my ccna A+ certifications and i still dont understand how linus understands every part of a PC from the tiny microprocessors to being able to use an AC as a Cooler, how does he know about and know how to do all of this.

If you have a hobby, you pick up these things. It helps if you have a purpose behind your actions and people to guide you through things.
I'm a number cruncher. I learned basically all that stuff on my own for fun.

It's hard to outlearn someone who is learning for fun what you're struggling to comprehend.

I wouldn't trust Linus to set up a firewall though. Haha.


Also, certs are half worthless if you already have relevant work experience. I could get an A+ next week if I felt motivated. I'm not bothering. I could get a CCNA or Network+ next month... not bothering. Not worth the effort of memorizing things. (for context, I have some experience fiddling with things covered under both exams and skimmed test prep material for fun back in 2018; I'm also a quick learner). At this point I have a handful of Fortune 100 companies on my resume, multiple degrees, high GPA, high test scores, etc. I check the box on the resume for being "bright." and don't need a cert for that if I can show I have relevant experience.