Nix is advanced alien technology that was badly damaged when it fell from the sky. In particular the docs/blogs/forums are net negative some ridiculously high amount of the time, like start composing an email: “I have a very special set of skills, and I will find you…” amount of the time.

But once it starts working: how does anyone do this any other way?

- The language is reasonably well-documented and those docs are rarely wrong.

- Learn bash, like really really learn bash.

- Check out nixpkgs and use that to figure out how to do stuff.

- Only do this if paying the entire cost in time and frustration in one aneurism-inducing spasm upfront is a worthwhile tradeoff for having everything work perfectly every time thereafter.

It’s kinda like being Paul Atriedes: you get magic powers but first you put your hand in the fucking box. What’s in the box?

“Nix!”