One of my hobbies is installing systems, all kinds of systems, all kinds of software, and I never get tired of it. When I'm tinkering with systems and software, I enter a state of flow, completely focused and forgetting about everything else. I have a virtual machine installed on my computer, with a bunch of systems in it, ranging from the oldest Win XP to the latest trendy Arch Linux. However, most of them are just for the experience and I don't really use them much.
Today, I seriously thought about why I am so obsessed with tinkering with these things on the computer, to the point of neglecting sleep and food. It's mainly because I feel very frustrated and unsuccessful in the real world, and in this virtual digital world, I can experience the happiness and experiences that are missing in reality, and have the power to control everything.
For example, in reality, I can't afford a house, but in the virtual machine, installing a system is like building a digital house, and various software applications are like the interior furnishings. The sense of achievement and happiness I experience from it is essentially the same as building and decorating a house in reality. My computer system is like a home connected to my spiritual world. My real-world home is already in ruins and I have basically given up hope, but my digital home is well-organized and constantly changing. I spend most of my time and energy here.
Another example is that in reality, I am a laborer, with no power, always being planned and arranged by others. But in the process of installing and configuring systems - the situation is reversed. I am the chief designer in the digital virtual world, with the power of a king, overseeing and deploying everything. Some people say, "If you think that's great, why don't you become a programmer and experience the joy of building everything from scratch?" Well, I think programmers are just laborers. How can they compare to the chief designer? They don't need to get their hands dirty, they just need to oversee and deploy.
Of course, there are also various difficulties encountered in the process. I still remember the feeling of installing and configuring Arch Linux, as if I had experienced the founding of the party in Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing, gone through a 25,000-mile Long March and various wars, and then the beginning of the country, with everything to be done, and finally the arduous journey of completing a great project.