I can remember how it started, but I cannot remember why it started.

I think I was trying to do something simple like change the time zone on my computer but as usual a simple task was draining my time a lot more than I felt reasonable.

Even though I had changed the time zone in the settings, my email and calendar were not syncing, so all the scheduling was off. I was trying to build a business at the time (more on that disaster later) so it felt quite important at the time.

As is usual in tech, we are presented with one thing, the Graphical User Interface (GUI) but what is happening in the background is a lot different (and often more sinister, btw). I had once seen someone use the Command Line. It crossed my mind that maybe I could solve the issue this way. I had know idea why, it just seemed like something somebody that knew what they were doing would do.

I didn’t even know it was called the CLI (Command Line Interface) or Command Prompt. I had to find that out. Once I knew the name, I went to YouTube for some context. Up came a channel called NetworkChuck who had made a video about the Top 40 CLI commands for Windows. The command I needed was tzutil or Time Zone Utility. From there I solved the issue at a system level and everything worked.

And that was it.

It worked.

That was the seed being planted. I had never subscribed to anyone on YouTube before but I subscribed to that channel. I really enjoyed the enthusiasm and delivery in the videos. They were entertaining and answered a lot of questions in terms of the technical language, context and use cases.

It gave me ideas.

It made computers look like fun.

I went back to work.

Now, I mentioned I was building my own business. It was not going well…not well at all. But the failing business is what sent me following the white rabbit down the tech route.

In that respect, Why I Started to Learn How to Use a Computer was worth it.