Finally.
Linus was a nerd, we all know it. IDK why we had to read about it because isn't it obvious? Also, aren't we a class full of Linux enthusiasts? Wait... sorry I keep confusing Hackers class with LUG because they are pretty much the same. I'm not complaining though. I love making people think I'm engaged and then making them not think I'm engaged. I'm engaged by the way. (Or am I?)
I think my upbringing was actually pretty different than Linus's. I was pretty girly, though awkward, and really my girliness came from my mom spoiling me as the youngest and only girl of the family, and my older brothers surprisingly doing the same. In fact, I do not like I am more girly in front of anyone than my brothers. So weird, right? I feel like you would imagine I would be like one of the bros when I'm with them, but I definitely take on the girl role. The reason I fell into STEM was partly because I has a fantastic 8th grade math teacher and partly because I wasn't ever good enough for one of my brothers and he forced me to take college engineering classes during highschool. I fell in love for obvious reasons but I wasn't ever really a geek. I was a semi-nerd I guess, I always overachieved and yeah I guess I started the math and spanish clubs but whatever. Unimportant. Moral of the story, I never felt like a geek, like Linus did. I never duct-taped my glasses or was good at physics. I never played with cool gadgets or took apart a computer when I was a kid. I played with pink legos, for sure, but I never built anything cool. I mainly stuck to scaring off my oldest brother's stuck-up girlfriends (unless they spoiled me with makeovers or nice leather jackets) (true story).
I'm not going to answer the questions in order.
What itch do I currently have? What sort of problem do I wish I could solve?
Uh, P != NP. Yeah, final answer.
Just kidding (sort of). I mean, isn't every computing problem of interest? I am interested in all of them, I would love to help anyone working on any of them. Computer science is cool man. It's just so beautiful and deserves more appreciation than most people give it. I don't yearn to make the next greatest app or start up and I really don't want to touch automation or IoT or anything dubbed "smart". I guess I can narrow it down: I would love to help improve computer science education. I would love to help more people get into coding, to help us achieve social justice in computing, and to help software developers and professors be able to use their computing tools more effectively for their aim or goals. Projects are cool, I dabble in whatever sparks my interest. I think the most consistent yearning of mine though, is to bring more people into this field and to help people code and build the cool things that they yearn for.
Linux came from a problem that Linus wanted to solve, and itch I guess. The operating system on the Sinclair thing had issues and was annoyed. Ofc the issues were not his code's fault, ofc, so he started making his own OS since he simply couldn't deal with the Sinclair OS. Yes, I may have exaggerated that a little, but I assume it went down that way. Can you blame me? He took it seriously in the sense that it had to be perfect, but he didn't think it would ever be more than just his own (or is he trying to be humble...). Regardless, I love linux and I'm glad he made it. It simply goes to show that if you have an idea, it may seem like it will be small but that doesn't mean it has no worth.