This could be me, I started on unix before Linux existed. I was on HP-UX, IRIX, AIX, Solaris1/2, and I did the same thing, went in /usr/bin, did a ls, man all the commands, this is how I learnt unix command, shell, awk, grep, sed, etc.
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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I once wrote documentation for a fairly complicated bit of control and analysis software for use with test equipment I built for PhD students to use in my department. Towards the end of the docs I added a message that basically said "if you read this, come and see me and I'll buy you some nice food". Needless to say I never had to buy anyone anything.
Agreed. I've saved so much money by RTFM. As a father of three kids, every dollar saved means a better life for my family.
Car broken? RTFM, bought an ODBII scanner, and fixed it.
Need air conditioning? RTFM and installed my own heat pumps in my house, saving $7000 in labor and markup.
House has an old 60 amp fuse panel? Paid an electrician for the service upgrade, read the NEC, wired and installed all branch circuits and sub panels myself. Passed inspection. Saved $7500.
When you take the time to learn something, you not only get the satisfaction of using your own hands to accomplish something, but you also get to save money.
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now people just "ask GPT"... "I asked chatGPT".
my answer is "dude, GPT just copypasted from the fucking manual so you don't have to read. congrats, you didn't learn a fucking thing."
it's depressing
Its the damn truth. Either rtfm which is the easy way since your predecesors made it for you or tinker with shit by trial and error untill you figure it out all on your own. Otherwise you are just lazy.
My entire job is basically reading manuals π
Can't find the manual for my girlfriend or her kids.
I've acquired a reputation as the go-to frontend wizard by reading the MaterialUI documentation. Now half my job is randomly getting called on Teams, listening to someone ramble about what crazy ideas they have for their frontend, and pointing them to the MUI implementation that already exists (because there are no new ideas). It's stupid, those docs are modern and well-structured, people just refuse to read them.
Not everyone learns the same way. I've mostly found man pages to be pretty opaque. Finding examples online that are relevant to my specific use case have been much more useful to me.
I read the manual before i buy a product, I watch the product reviews, and if I can I watch the repair videos as well.
Big part of my enjoyment from buying things is the work I do upfront. I tend to do the same with any tech project.
mankier saved my ass more times than i'm willing to admit on Barebones distros that came with no man. Especially with the command examples