I have made many good purchases and quite a few bad ones. I think I am tied for the two best purchases that I have ever made. The tie is between a Dell OptiPlex 7060 (used) for $350.00 and a brand new Logitech C920 for $10.00. The C920 has started my journey towards content creation and the OptiPlex 7060 began my home lab journey. Both were really excellent purchases because they are stepping stones towards getting out of the rut I am in.
About 8 months ago, I had a bit of an idea that came to me while I was lying in a hospital bed after suffering from a serious pulmonary embolism in both lungs. I was on high flow oxygen and wondering what my next step in life would be when I nothing seemed appealing. I know that my passion is really computers and networks but doing this in a corporate (or even as an independent contractor) made it hell on wheels. So the idea was maybe to teach this.
I thought about opening my own IT academy and teaching computers and networks to students. But even this would become more focused on workforce preparation. This means preparing students for vendor certifications. I have no interest in doing that because most of these certification preparation courses do not teach the broader knowledge. They’re more narrow in scope and specific to the vendor hardware. Often vendor hardware uses proprietary terminology and techniques. We all know how that goes.
So my friend Davoy suggested that I try content creation in short form, 15 minute or less videos, that teach this stuff to people and monetize through YouTube. Eventually, I could do this through an inexpensive subscription model with the videos. On my next time off, I think I am going to dive in. The trend seems to be away from reading as a form of learning and more towards multi-sensory and tactile approaches. I do love reading and writing but I am finding writing educational content to be tedious. I believe I would enjoy video content creation a lot more.
So yes, my home computer lab is up and going and I have the Logitech C920 Webcam running as well. It’s just a matter of doing a pilot and seeing what traction happens. I have always been long on ideas and short on follow through. Now is the time.