I have seen my attitude toward my computers change pretty remarkably over the years.
I used to think of it (even as a 'programmer') as a 'Computer'. As in, that 'device' that 'people have' that 'does stuff'.
I used to think it was magic.
Now, I see it more for what it actually is. It's a collection of programmable electronics. There is no mystery to any of it.
It's just a tool for ordering zeros and ones.
I'm pretty good at using my tools these days, but there is still an awful lot that I don't know...
The things that really help me understand my 'programmable electronics' are status reporting and debugging software.
I wish I knew how to do kernel debugging. I'm going to figure that out before the end of the year, on a Linux machine.
One of the things that has been a barrier to my understanding, that I have been able to isolate as causal to some extent, has been other people's perceptions of computers. Because other people are mystified by them, because other people think they are magic, because other people think that programming is complicated. Those attitudes have been getting in my way. But not any more.
Everything is easy once you know how.
John.