At Google Next this week and bumped into some googlers whose name is on various books. One fascinating insight: software engineering is not mostly writing code - they said the average amount of time spent writing code there per week was less than ten. SWE is not just writing code. I feel seen!

I was he Yak today at @chicago.devopsdays.org ! Also a cameo from the one and only @matty.wtf

I have much to be grateful for! First, to be in technology. I realize that as a white male in tech, I have a lot of built in privilege. As a teenager, my dad got us what was excessively expensive in the 80s - a computer. An Atari 400 was my first computer and I did a little BASIC on it.

New Article - your tools suck, what gives?

schuyler.sreconsulting.io/your-tools-s...

I’ve spent the past weeks learning golang after too long a break from coding. Wrote a tic-tac-toe game which was a good choice because it’s a common challenge for CS students which I effectively am for this! It got me to write tests for it as well as instrument it in otel!

Whoever thought, “let’s add peanut butter to this fluffernutter and make a sandwich out of it” is brilliant. Like serious food chemistry brilliant.

Can we talk for a minute about the horrid state of recruiting? I get it - companies have the upper hand right now with more demand than supply of jobs, but we all know this will come back around eventually. Do they not know we remember?

Last year I took a one day course on reading nautical nav charts and I keep thinking of the systems lessons I gained from it.

E.g. the instructor said "Nav charts are only as reliable as the underlying survey, and good surveys only happen in places of significant economic or ecologic value"

Just had a caramel apple empanada from Taco Bell for the first time in what feels like a few decades - and BOY did I miss it! Yes - ate with a crunchwrap. As is proper.

I really wish my parents generation (baby boomers) would understand that when I state my opinion and they disagree they don’t have to go and spout off about why my opinion is wrong. My opinion is right because it’s mine.

The more time I spend talking to other engineering leaders, the more I realize there are only really two groups: those that struggle with feature flagging and those that don’t. The latter group is comprised of orgs using AND not using feature flags.

Introduce yourself with some jobs you have done apart from what you do now:

- Shift leader at Little Caesars
- dishwasher at a local restaurant where I grew up
- Busboy / barback
- Waiter

I was thinking this morning about morals. I have been instructed to do things I considered immoral at work. These were things that are unlikely others would see as such but they went against my moral code. I did them and still feel shame. 🧵

For my first post, I introduce you to Pixel and Mouse. Pixel is almost six and Mouse is four and a half. 🥰🥰

Pixel is the napkin thief and Mouse the nose licker.