After all my years in the “biz”, I struggled intensely to add a Windows CA to an ubuntu box today. Just goes to show you, no matter how long you’ve been doing this, or how good you are, you know nothing and its frustration all the way down!

I’ve said, repeatedly, in fact, so repeatedly that it may be etched on my tombstone, that “no one jumps out of bed in the morning to fix desktop computers.” I’ll maintain this until proven otherwise. The most passionate technicians and leaders in this industry have a demonstrable need to solve problems; the harder the better. Indeed, the most complicated solutions in hardware, software, and networking boil down to the same basic methodology: “Get it working, then we’ll go from there, eh?”

The technical level that I have achieved for myself is not a testament to the things I’ve learned. My knowledge base is informed by articles, trainings, classes, etc. My technical level is a tribute to the stress and trauma of bad solutions, wrong answers, and every question I wasn’t able to answer in a snap. I’ve wrangled my way into leading my team “my way”, which, unfortunately means, for them, that problem solving is on the menu.

If you ask me a question, and I tell you the answer, you solve it that time. If you bang your head against it, the knowledge becomes a part of who you are, and informs your decision making, your troubleshooting, your problem solving. Spending the time to get that extra value seems pretty worth it to me.