The people who move us forward

When I first began exploring the idea of self-hosting it was intimidating. I had some experience tinkering with electronics but building my own server seemed too much. During my initial research I came across the youtube channel novaspirit tech by a man named Don who had a series of videos called "Pi-Hosted" that was explaining exactly what I planned to accomplish with my own server. His videos didn't just make me confident enough to start my own server but also was an immense help as I've expanded it over the last few months.

Don passed away a few days ago from cancer. He was young. The reactions on youtube and the self-hosting community on his passing made me think of how amazing people him are. Don loved teaching others of his passions. There was no ego in it, just an earnest desire to spread his joy of tinkering to other people and get them to join him.

Humanity moves forward because of people who increases the collective knowledge of our species more than themselves. Don was one of them. To think a person passes away yet they have such an impact on so many who have never met him. The skills I have learned with Don's help will stay with me, and maybe one day I'll help someone else learn something new and Don will be part of the reason why that person knows this new thing. This goes for so many others who watched his videos and built and learned from him.

The beautiful thing about the world is people like Don are all around us, and I'm grateful to live in a time in our history when they're able to share their knowledge so easily. Don moved humanity to a smarter, more self reliant future, and he helped people he never knew be better. What a proud legacy to leave behind.