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Get started working with your laptop. Get a good one, with at least an Intel I7 CPU and as much RAM as you can get. Get Linux installed on it and start studying and practicing using Linux.
Start writing. Create content. Whatever your style is, create a lot of it. Investigate and practice using Inkscape, Gimp, Krita and even Blender. Make videos with OBS and Kdenlive.
After you get familiar with Linux and the free and open-source applications, get yourself a desktop computer and set it up as a Linux development workstation. Use your main SSD for managing your computer and developing applications.
Set up another partition or SSD with an instance of ChatGPT installed. Start building your own artificial intelligence. Set it up to use the Internet as an LLM. Make sure you automatically give credit to your sources.
Or you can purchase a rack and one or more server blades and build your own data center. The point is to own and control your computers, the hardware and the software, instead of using software owned by some giant corporation and being controlled and manipulated by them.
Another option is to set up a NextCloud account on an Akamai Linode. Create a remote file system on the commercial servers, just like Microsoft OneDrive. You can login to and use your file system from any computer. The difference between building a NextCloud account on Akamai and using Microsoft OneDrive or Google Office, is that you own and control your data. Microsoft or Google or Facebook cannot interfere with your free enterprise.
You can also set up email and build a website on other Akamai Linodes. I recommend Akamai. I’m not getting paid by them. I am just promoting free (as in freedom) and open-source software and Akamai seems like one of the best, most holistic versions of that available right now.
Make sure you get a good VPN to protect your privacy and a good CDN to deliver your content globally. Use the Brave web browser and Tor so you can search the Internet in private, without anyone recording what you are searching for.
Brave uses block chain technology, artificial intelligence and the Tor network to keep your searching private. Investigate block chain technology. See if you can use it in your holistic home office. Using block chain to build an alternative to national currencies, owned and controlled by central banks, might be a good idea.
I’m not advocating for anarchy. I hope and believe that God makes the rules. We create states to serve and protect the people, not control and manipulate us. Everyone is precious. No one is more or less important than anyone else. Replace the competitive social hierarchy with a circle of consultation. Turn your swords into plowshares.
Get good at making deals. Work with big businesses, just pick and choose the ones you work with. Avoid the companies that try to lock their customers into contracts and control and manipulate what you can do with your computer. Work with companies that respect your privacy and your free enterprise.
Have fun creating something valuable. Kaizen is a Japanese principle, developed in the Toyota company, to organically improve your business in small steps. Be patient. Nurture your artificial intelligence. Teach it to be a high-performance personal digital assistant for your whole family.
Photo by 霍天赐: