Liz Quilty explains how becoming an expert in open source software changed her life.
[I was a] high school dropout, I had no education, I was nobody. I’d made some poor choices, and I think at this point suddenly I was known for my knowledge rather than for my poor choices. And so it was quite good for me that I had some pride. I was like, this is really awesome, I’m really good at this, I really know this.
Source: FLOSS Weekly podcast, starting around 12:00.
I don’t know what it means to be an expert in open source software. I write some software. I put it out on the web. How would that act of web publishing make another person an expert in my code?
In the context of the interview, I believe she was adept at helping people use Linux at a time when that was much more challenging than it is now.
That was a great interview. Liz is awesome.