Preface Reflection

In the book Just for Fun, Linus Torvalds mentioned a theory of the "Evolution of Everything". He also thought that the prosperity of the Linux system was due to this theory.

In his opinion, the evolution of everything must go through three stages: first survival, second social order, and third entertainment. Like war: primitive humans fought among themselves for women and caves; soldiers in the Middle Ages fought for the appeal of the king; while nowadays, war games on Steam attract thousands of people. We can also see similar patterns in farming, sex, and so on.

As for Linux, people use Linux for work, which means for survival. Then they contribute to the Linux community, where good programs gain appreciation from one another. Lastly, they can depend on their taste to design more fun things to play. By now, Linux has already reached its three stages.

As for me, now I am only at the first level; I use it to control my server. Reaching the entertainment level requires a long time and patience. Also, I think that studying itself may have already become entertainment. I fell in love with solving game levels while learning CTF and digital circuits; I didn't notice the connection between them before.

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