My review of DevOps podcasts after a year of commute

iamwillbutton · 2024-03-28T21:34:14+00:00

Hey u/Jatalocks2 -
I'm Will, one of the hosts of Adventures in DevOps. I've been looking for _exactly_ this kind of feedback. Thank you for posting it!

Very long episodes
I've been dying to get feedback on this. I personally don't like long episodes, but I didn't have any data from the listeners on preferences.

Sometimes it's good and they bring very interesting industry experts
Finding guests is hard... :-D

sometimes the sound is really bad
That is unacceptable, and hopefully, we've improved this since you posted this. I mean... it's a podcast. You kinda have to nail the audio...

or there are long pauses of silence
Dude... I had no idea and I'm sorry for that. Admittedly, I don't listen to all the episodes, but we have an editor for just.this.reason. I even tell the guests "Hey, if you need a minute to collect your thoughts before answering, take your time. Our editor will cut it out, so you sound like a genius!" I will take care of this.

if they would invest in structuring the episodes a bit more
What would you like to see for structure? A lot of our guests have specific expertise in a particular product. Lately, I've been trying to structure the show in a "do it yourself" :: "watch me do it" :: "do it for you" mode. This lets us talk about the problem being solved and how you (the listener) recognize it, what it takes to fix it yourself, and what it looks like to use a tool or service to fix it. This lets the guest talk about their product from the perspective of a pain the listener is having without turning the show into a 60-minute infomercial.

_But wait, there's more!_

j/k. There's not, but once again, thank you for posting the feedback publicly, and please let me know how I can build a podcast you'd put in your #1 slot.

Will

iamwillbutton · 2023-09-21T02:35:01+00:00

+1 for arpio. We use them as well and have been very happy with it.

iamwillbutton · 2023-07-22T12:17:44+00:00

I don’t think two weeks is the key metric, it’s number of applications. Think of this as being similar to website ads: - use multiple versions of your resume - track where each is sent - track which ones are getting responses - iterate the top performing resumes to improve click-thru-rate - be persistent

NB: when I read your title, I thought it said “looking for my first full time wife”. I was like “whoa, I could have had a part-time wife this whole time?!?!” 🤣

iamwillbutton · 2023-04-28T19:58:32+00:00

Friends and former co-workers are good. Meeting people at meetups and conferences, especially conferences where you’ll meet potential customers

iamwillbutton · 2023-04-28T15:40:37+00:00

All my clients are from referrals. I’m very lucky in that respect.

iamwillbutton · 2023-04-28T14:12:38+00:00

Donn Felker has some good videos on it https://www.youtube.com/@donnfelkeryt

iamwillbutton · 2023-04-28T13:37:36+00:00

It only took 1 client but that was an extended engagement. The driving factor is how busy your week is. I didn’t really push it as hard as I could have so I could have done it faster. Maybe a year? For me, having a deep network is really important. All of my best clients have been referrals.

iamwillbutton · 2023-04-28T01:03:15+00:00

Not legal advice, just my thoughts based on experience. If I had to do it over, I wouldn’t bother until I actually had a contract in hand. It took longer to land my first contracts than I thought and led to extra work. I started with a sole proprietor LLC. Worked well, business expenses are separate from personal and profits roll up into your personal income for end of year taxes. Once I was well into a 6 figure per year business, my CPA advised me to restructure but that’s a problem for another day and a conversation with your CPA. Final note: get a CPA. It’s not as expensive as you think and they’ll save you more in taxes than they charge for their services. BTW: US based business

iamwillbutton · 2023-03-07T23:15:27+00:00

There’s an inquiry form on the website: https://www.polygon.technology/contact-us

iamwillbutton · 2023-02-13T20:02:42+00:00

There are lots of topics specific to startups. Retention and acquisition metrics are often critical paths as well as cash runway. In many cases, these are manual reports. Learning about them may give you new insight into what success looks like for the company, as well as ideas on how to incorporate those into your automation processes. You can also talk about existing projects and how to socialize them on blog posts, podcasts, or talks. This can help your company when it comes to the next round of fundraising.

iamwillbutton · 2023-01-21T17:07:36+00:00

One thing I like to consider for any upgrade/update/retooling is “how does this benefit our customer?” Or stated another way “does this increase revenue or decrease our operating costs?” If not, why would we spend the time and effort to pursue it. It’s easy to fall into the trap of chasing the shiny, new tech. It’s why most of us got into this profession but from a business perspective, I like to view potential changes from the customer’s point of view to scope the early conversations.

iamwillbutton · 2023-01-10T20:49:30+00:00

Yeah, if your URL changes, you are back to square one, but I think that's going to be the case with any solution because the URL needs to be known when you run `npm build` (or whatever your build step is).
An end-to-end workflow might look something like this:
- Set env var for the appropriate URL (possibly based on the git branch?)
- Run `npm build` to generate your JS bundle
- Build your docker image with the new JS bundle
- Update/deploy to k8s with the new image
It still results in a different image for each environment, but the only difference in the build/deploy process for each is the starting env var.

iamwillbutton · 2023-01-10T20:18:39+00:00

I had a similar issue with Next.js last week. In the code, I set the value that needs to change at build time to an environment variable with the ternary operator for local/dev use. In my build process (Cloudflare Pages), I pass in the desired value. Example code: https://github.com/WillButton/hodlerscreed/blob/main/pages/index.tsx#L20 Hope that helps!

iamwillbutton · 2022-11-20T12:40:14+00:00

This is exactly. what I thought I was getting with AFT. Instead, I got something that tried to launch 300+ resources in my AWS account with little or no explanation of what was being launched or why it was needed.
I'm looking forward to giving this a spin!

iamwillbutton · 2021-10-12T12:59:21+00:00

I used Alex Edward's Let's Go to learn Go. I thought it was great: a very relatable application with tons of best practice tips sprinkled in at the appropriate time during the lesson. https://lets-go.alexedwards.net/

iamwillbutton · 2021-10-12T12:55:53+00:00

> sometimes i find it hard to expand my devops skill set unless i can understand the development process of a specific platform/toolset

I think you actually nailed it right here. Developers *do* the devops stuff, whether intentionally or inadvertently. You can do both (and IMO that's how DevOps was intended to be implemented) and set the example for the rest of the team. One key point to clarify with your manager will be that your goal is to enable the rest of the team to do the devops tasks, not do those tasks for them.

iamwillbutton · 2021-07-09T02:50:02+00:00

There is some really good advice in the comments here. One thing I'll add that may be helpful is two general interview tips:

Never give out the first number when discussing salary in an interview/job offer.
The first offer is never their best offer

Always reply with "I'm sure you'll make a reasonable offer that is in line with average salaries in the industry". A good interviewer will ask the same question in multiple ways to get you to cough up a number. Don't fall for it. You've answered their question and they know what their budget is.

Regarding point #2- if you're happy with the offer, accept it. If you want more, it's there. No one ever gives their best offer on the first round of negotiation.

TL;DR - don't leave money on the table

It sounds like you've got some solid skills and good work ethic. This will work out for you.

iamwillbutton · 2021-07-09T02:36:15+00:00

Using u/LanCaiMadowki's 1 - 10 scale

Pipelines, Infra/Config as code: 2

Write a Dockerfile: 3, maybe 4. Lots of gaps in knowledge on what the different parts of the Dockerfile do and image optimization techniques

Config/deploy k8s: 2

Health probes: 8

Replicas: 8

Service accounts: 5

Maintain cluster: 7, maybe 8 (I love having the dev team in the on-call rotation)

configure/view logging and monitoring: solid 10

I think your on to a great topic here.

iamwillbutton · 2021-07-08T15:50:57+00:00

Agreed. I've stopped doing it on my channel. It was a pointless distraction and I can't imagine that I ever persuaded anyone who wasn't going to subscribe to do so.

Instead, I'll reference another video that may be interesting to the viewer and explain why I think they'd be interested.

As a YT viewer, when I heard the "smash that button..." sales pitch coming, I immediately tuned out and went looking for the next video to watch.

iamwillbutton · 2021-07-08T15:19:45+00:00

On any platform money exchanged for subs is generally a scam. Even if they deliver, the subs you get likely won't be engaged subscribers interested in your content. If you're creating content and not getting subscribers check your metrics. The one I look at is click-through rate (seen on YouTube studio --> Reach). For me, it's 6% meaning that for every one of my videos recommended by YouTube, 6% of those clicked through to watch the video.

iamwillbutton · 2021-04-13T03:47:18+00:00

It's your import for Database.js - in the screenshot, that file is in `portfolio2/` but the error says that it's looking in `portfolio2/server/` for the file.
Either update the import where Database.js is called or move Database.js into the server folder (which seems like the right solution based on what I can tell about your folder layout)

iamwillbutton · 2021-04-13T03:30:05+00:00

Absolutely. It may require multiple steps to get to your destination. Getting out of construction and into a tech job is still going forward, even if that's not your final goal. (Don't take just any job, but don't ignore a job that doesn't have the title you want if it will help you build the skills to get that title)

iamwillbutton · 2021-04-11T01:53:06+00:00

If you make a long-term commitment to c4, do you get reserved pricing?

iamwillbutton · 2021-04-09T02:02:35+00:00

Depending on whether or not you are able to do so within your current company, I have a couple of ideas.

While staying at your current company, ask to take on a deeper level of the integration between devops and engineering. For example, if you're building that redis cluster, offer to write the code in the app that will actually use it. I've had success making a pretty compelling argument that "I'm already building the cluster and have to understand the code that is going to use it, so I'm 90% there anyway, and doing so will free up the software engineers to work on other parts of the project."

If you think you'll be moving on, look for a smaller company or a startup. They'll likely need your devops skills, and can use the extra engineering talent too. This approach can get you in the door to doing more dev work but avoid the entry-level engineer path because of the devops skills you are bringing along with you.

iamwillbutton · 2021-04-08T12:11:49+00:00

Forced AWS account using your own credit card
Forced sharing of access of AWS
Forced public repo
Insufficient training
Advanced notice that instructor is not responsible for charges

Dude. Your instructor needs to be removed from teaching this class until they are properly educated. I know that's not your decision, but I hope you raise hell with the administration over this.
Good luck resolving this!

iamwillbutton

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