A Month in Bali

Today I find myself in Dojo, a coworking space in Canggu, Bali. I’m here for a month in order to do some self learning and probably soaking up some sun.

I opted for a complete fresh install of Linux Mint on an old computer. Here are the main reasons:

• I eliminate all the distracts that come with my Macbook as I only sign in to what is essential. So no notifications, no emails etc. It enables me to perform deep work.
• I have never tried Linux before and thought this might be a good opportunity to explore this itself as a learning opportunity.
• As I travelled to Thailand before this, I didn’t want to risk my Macbook with theft or damage. I figured sticking to a Unix environment would still be preferable.

After coming back from lunch my wireless card decided to stop working. Thankfully the Skype rooms here have a wired connection so I was able to jump in one and download the correct driver. Apparently the Realtek driver that was previously working in the morning and prior to the trip was for a newer version of the wireless card. The classic Linux driver issue.

After making this decision, I was delighted to learn that John Carmack also took a ‘coding retreat’ with OpenBSD. I was aware Carmack had locked himself in hotel rooms for Doom, but not more recently or with a new OS.

I have a todo list of all the things I wish to learn. I will probably post some things here also.