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Would be interesting to find out how other sysadmins are educating themselves. I find myself in the need of constantly learning new things. I prefer to spend more time on the subject and know it thoroughly knowing that not doing so will kick me back in the future. This can be frustrating sometimes as it feels that I move too slowly. Our company has account on safari.oreilly.com and I am reading a book or two at any given time. I also read sysadmin related blogs for ideas and tips and to keep myself in the tune with the trends.
I cannot do any study at home as I would rather spend my out of work hours with my family plus I find it hard/impossible to study at home due to the inability to concentrate at home. So I mostly study while on the train, luckily my commute time takes up to 2 hours a day.
I also read a lot at work and don’t feel guilty about it. To fix/implement/plan, I need to have a solid knowledge and if it requires time then this is a part of my job being a sysadmin. There is a joke that says “sysadmin is a person that knows a lot about everytihng and as a result knows nothing” – I think ther is a grain of truth here…
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Reading, mostly on-line or PDFs. I seldom buy books any longer, mostly because of their cost. Being in Australia we pay considerably more than some other countries do and technical books are amongst the most expensive. If topic specific I generally start with a Google search. For general info I use sites such as ServerFault and StumbleUpon. When studying specific subjects I try to get hold of video courses (CBT, VTC, etc.) when possible. I find them to be a valuable adjunct to reading.
As it’s not possible to know everything I believe the most important skill a good System Admin can posses is the ability to find the answers quickly when they are required, whether it’s in a book, a web site or simply knowing who to ask.
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