How did Linus and his team learn what they knows about computers?

[Wh0_Am_1]

Hey guys! I have had one question for a long time, and I finally decided to ask it: How did Linus and his team learn what they knows about computers? I mean I know he worked at NCIX, but he appears to have a grasp on many of the software concepts, and hardware components that you don't get just from building computers for a living and staying up to date on tech news, same with the rest of his team, so where did they learn it? And how can I learn the same things about tech that they did? Thanks in advance.

[Streetguru]

26 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Hey guys! I have had one question for a long time, and I finally decided to ask it: How did Linus and his team learn what they knows about computers? I mean I know he worked at NCIX, but he appears to have a grasp on many of the software concepts, and hardware components that you don't get just from building computers for a living and staying up to date on tech news, same with the rest of his team, so where did they learn it? And how can I learn the same things about tech that they did? Thanks in advance.

By reading scripts

[Catsrules]

Self taught I believe. You can learn a lot from searching online and just playing around with hardware. I bet a few new people maybe have a degree or some other formal schooling in the computer science field.
 

They also have alot of support from the companies whose products they are working on. For example I remember on a video about an Asus server motherboard Linus was in contact with Asus support teams to figure out some features they weren't technically supported yet or ever. They even go a few alpha/beta/custom bios to install on the motherboard from Asus Support. But not every company will do that, so they are forced to learn or experiment themselves.

[Wh0_Am_1]

9 minutes ago, Catsrules said:

Self taught I believe. You can learn a lot from searching online and just playing around with hardware. I bet a few new people maybe have a degree or some other formal schooling.
 

They also have alot of support from the companies whose products they are working on. For example I remember on a video about an Asus server motherboard Linus was in contact with Asus support teams to figure out some features they weren't technically supported yet or ever. They even go a few alpha/beta/custom bios to install on the motherboard from Asus Support. But not every company will do that, so they are forced to learn or experiment themselves.

Yeah he probably did learn a ton from support and everything, but what about the rest? What websites, sources, and stuff like that? I am asking because I want to learn more than what is on YouTube, I want to dig deeper, so I would like to know how to do so without breaking my budget.

[Wh0_Am_1]

14 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

 

Thanks for the effort! But, it didn't really help... Yes I know I am asking hard questions, and thanks for trying to help.

[Wh0_Am_1]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

no really, they learnt it off having to deal with builds most of the time. if nothing went into their heads then there might be a hobby/interest issue

(even Dennis picked it up eventually)

Sure you can learn a ton of stuff from building custom computers, what I am talking about is how did they learn the intricate concepts behind the software, and components, and how they work? Things like basic theories, logic and the like behind every single component.

[Wh0_Am_1]

4 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

okay, now that's a computer science and computer programming question.

 

for stuff that goes into techquickies and the like, I can't 100% speak for the writers (random paging @James @jmart604 ) but it's probably mostly google, and it's stuff that's more trivia level than something that should save your job on a professional skill basis (I consider even Computerphile and Crash Course Computer Science the same level)

Ok, thanks! I will look into that!

[dalekphalm]

13 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Hey guys! I have had one question for a long time, and I finally decided to ask it: How did Linus and his team learn what they knows about computers? I mean I know he worked at NCIX, but he appears to have a grasp on many of the software concepts, and hardware components that you don't get just from building computers for a living and staying up to date on tech news, same with the rest of his team, so where did they learn it? And how can I learn the same things about tech that they did? Thanks in advance.

So Linus learned most of what he knows from self-learning experience. Mostly doing builds and troubleshooting for friends and family. He also worked at NCIX, but I believe he already had a basic understanding by that point.

 

However, Linus' experience is and was mostly around desktop builds. He's definitely picked up more enterprise knowledge from the needs of the office, but he's no IT SysAdmin

 

Luke, similar, except he also studied Computer Science (I believe) in University, so Luke has more knowledge in actual coding/programming. Linus, I believe, studied Business.

 

If you're talking about the various topics from like, TechQuickie, etc? They don't actually know that stuff, for the most part. It's research and Google.

 

As for the rest of the team? Well, their skills vary wildly, so it depends on each team member.

[Canada EH]

15 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

How did Linus and his team learn what they knows about computers?

Its called Google. They search the internet and scrape the info to put into their videos.

[James]

18 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Yeah he probably did learn a ton from support and everything, but what about the rest? What websites, sources, and stuff like that? I am asking because I want to learn more than what is on YouTube, I want to dig deeper, so I would like to know how to do so without breaking my budget.

When I first was hired at LMG I knew almost nothing about computer hardware, though I did have a technical degree with some CS training. To catch me up quickly, Linus suggested that I read every AnandTech article from 2004 onward. The reason he suggested that is because that's what he did, and a lot of the things he can remember or the trends he saw come and go come from just living through it.

 

Of course I didn't read all those articles- there's over 4,000 and Anand's site isn't built for systematically going through the back catalog chronologically; trust me, I tried. So what I did instead was go to the Wikipedia page for Motherboard. It contains a list of all the components on a board, and each of those components has its own page (ex. RAM) and each of those have subsequent pages (ex. DDR4). So I just spent a week studying Wikipedia, writing notes, and then re-reading my notes. 

 

I personally find that I don't retain un-grounded information very well; I have to know things from their base, physical level for the concept to stick. Wikipedia is great for that.