Concept of learning one thing at a time?

I have a friend at school that said to focus on one thing at a time. He said for right now to just learn as much as possible about Linux. Then when I get advanced enough at Linux, I can move onto something like networking. I've also heard people who will say not to limit myself to one thing in computers. I've seen this in other areas too. I've heard people tell me to focus on one martial art at a time, or one instrument at a time, as opposed to learning many and I've heard people who will say not to limit myself to one art or instrument and to learn from many different arts and be open? Do you agree with this? Do you think there should be a balance with a few select things in one area but not too many? If so, where do you think the balance is?

I don't know why you would need to know about Linux, to start studying networking. If you are planning to take something like CCNA/CCNP, you won’t need to know anything about Linux. It’s two very different subjects.

Learning about what you find interesting is always a good advice, but I don’t think that it’s the problem here.

Forgive me if I come off as rude, that is not my intention. However, you have a lot of question from what I have seen, and I have seen maybe 5% of your posts. My question is; are you able to focus on something for a longer period of time?

I don’t come here that often, and I post even less. About 9 years ago, I started doing the missions. I’m not done yet. Occasionally I’ll come do a mission, and read some of the forum. There can easily be a half, or a whole year, in between.

When I began the missions I was studying and working with IT. That has not changed yet.

Many of the questions I have seen you post; you would have been able to find an answer to in a matter of hours. You don’t come off as stupid, just very impatient.

I think your challenge is to actually sit down and spend a few months studying something. I don’t think it’s the subject, or subjects.

Maybe you should change the Red Bull with a nice cup of tea, or a beer?

What do you want to learn?

I'm interested in too many different things, and that's the problem. Networking is one of my biggest passions. But I'm studying Linux because I like Linux too and I am going by certification courses on Cybrary. I'm doing all of the basic certifications first and then moving to more advanced ones. I think that is probably too broad. I'm trying to learn as much about Linux as possible, but its true that I have always had a passion for networking and how to use windows as well. I like linux just as much as windows, but I guess I'm trying to learn everything, which isn't a good idea.

I was asking the question philosophically, not in terms of my own interests though. I want to learn enough basic Linux to understand how to use Kali 2.0.

I think I want to learn networking. I like windows and linux, but I like networking the most. I would want to learn linux because its relevant and I want to learn windows because its more important than mac, but I really like networking.

You seem to have contradicted yourself you asked what a wanted to learn but then said how interesting the material is isn't the problem. I'm confused.

I guess the thing that has most of my interest is networking and IT fundamentals like A+ training related stuff if that's what I think it is. My problem is I'm interested in too much different stuff. I agree with you on that.

OverTheWire is a good place to to start learning Linux you'll need putty.

Learning subjects on their own is not bad, learning loads of things at once is suicide. The best way is to learn how all these things tie in. What happens when you send a request to a web server? What's actually happening in a 3 way handshake? How do different types of protocols work and how is it useful with things like nmap?

What is going on when you login to a website? Using a Proxy interceptor like Burp can teach you a lot about that. It's not about learning one subject to death, it's about learning the relationships between the core fundamentals and the tools used to manipulate them.

Jbraithwaite wrote:Learning subjects on their own is not bad, learning loads of things at once is suicide. The best way is to learn how all these things tie in. What happens when you send a request to a web server? What's actually happening in a 3 way handshake? How do different types of protocols work and how is it useful with things like nmap?

What is going on when you login to a website? Using a Proxy interceptor like Burp can teach you a lot about that. It's not about learning one subject to death, it's about learning the relationships between the core fundamentals and the tools used to manipulate them.

So what your saying is that its better to learn the basics of one thing at a time and then learn how to use those things together.

Jbraithwaite wrote:Learning subjects on their own is not bad, learning loads of things at once is suicide. The best way is to learn how all these things tie in. What happens when you send a request to a web server? What's actually happening in a 3 way handshake? How do different types of protocols work and how is it useful with things like nmap?<br><br>What is going on when you login to a website? Using a Proxy interceptor like Burp can teach you a lot about that. It's not about learning one subject to death, it's about learning the relationships between the core fundamentals and the tools used to manipulate them.

+1

What JBraitheWaite said confused me for a minute. Learning loads at a time is suicide, yet one shouldn't "focus on one thing to death" or something like that rather. So then, where is the in between. Or do you mean to learn one thing for a few months and move onto the next thing.

I have a book on Nmap Scanning. It tells you everything you need to know about Nmap. I have the book for reference, because I know that 90% of the time I can get away with a "nmap -sS -O" scan to get what I want. It's lazy, but so are the people who set up servers.

Previously you bit my head off when I mentioned Penetration Testing. I've neglected to mention it since then. However, there's a million PenTesting resources out there, to read. If you want to live in the jungle, you need to learn how to swing from the trees.

Meaning, that, if you want to learn 'hacking' or 'Penetration Testing' (which is basically hacking without going to jail) you need to learn how it's all connected up and learn how to swing through a network and how a network is put together.

For Instance

Performing DNS queries & Zone Transfers
Port scanning to find NFS or SMB on a server and how you can mount a share to your computer or enumerate users/shares
Using Netcat listeners
Creating BASH scripts for automation of tasks

Just a few things that are quite powerful to know.

What you're trying to do is admirable, but a waste of time. It's like you have a car and want to be a mechanic, but learning everything about the water bottle isn't going to help. You need a base knowledge of all the cars parts, then delve deeper. Learning Linux to death won't help you. Learning nmap to death won't help you either.

I've found everything I know online. I've come a massive way in a few months even since I did LASACTF. Research OSINT, and learn how to leverage what you find. Join the dots.

Thanks for the advice. Anyways, I should stop talking about this stuff because that's a waste of time.

Concept of learning one thing at a time?

Concept of learning one thing at a time?

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