Very cool of you to post this. Too many people won't post stories like this, but I've done very similar multiple times. I think it definitely helps reinforce proper habits, and is the best way to cut your teeth on technology. It's also great for anyone new to read something like this, and be able to avoid something so devastating, and maybe make lesser mistakes, but still learn from both!
when you get to be as old as i am, these are the war stories you share with your kids and grandkids around the campfire ;-)
like the one from my colleague who once fat fingered fsck into mkfs and i lost my personal homepage because of it. what makes me uncomfortable about that story is that it was not my fault. if it were it would have been easier to tell. but at the time i was quite frustrated and my colleague felt that despite me trying to not get angry at him. i still feel really bad about my reaction then, adding to his predicament, since he had to live with the guilt about losing our website and everyone's personal home directory. it's bad when a mistake causes you to loose something personal, but so much worse when you loose someone elses stuff.
talking about mistakes is how we learn from them. the important part is not to get embarrassed about them. however that requires an environment where we are not blaming each other when something goes wrong.
i could have made that mistake myself. and i applied this lesson to my own learning as if i had.
blessed be the pessimist, for he hath made backups...
Absolutely, the worst mistakes are the biggest opportunities for learning. Destroying your own files is painful. Destroying EVERYONE'S files is a lesson that is more painful and something you will be more careful not to repeat.
I try to tell as many of these stories in person as possible, to let everyone know that unless you have dealt with this kind of accident, you're either in the 1% or due for your turn. I'd like to think that sharing these stories might at least give someone some pause before they go ahead and throw caution to the wind.
