The Ops Identity Crisis

A big theme in the keynotes and conversation during Velocity Conf in NYC a few weeks ago was the role of ops in an "ops-less" and "server-less" world. It's also been a big feature in discussions on twitter and in conversations I've had with coworkers and friends in the industry. There are several things that stand out to me in these conversations: first, that some ops engineers (sysadmins, techops, devops, and SREs) are worried that they will be phased out if developers and software engineers are responsible for the operational tasks in their systems; second, that developers and software engineers do not have the skills needed to take over responsibility for operational tasks; and third, that building reliable systems is impossible without an operations organization. 

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How I Wrote My First Technical Book

I just finished writing my first book, Production-Ready Microservices, and I've gotten a lot of questions about how I approached it, how I wrote it, and what the process was like from start to finish. The book is currently in the last stages of technical review and copyediting, so I thought I'd take advantage of this little break before I dive into writing my next two books and write something up about the whole process.

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From the Fledgling Physicist Archives: If Susan Can Learn Physics, So Can You

Originally posted on my blog fledglingphysicist.com, here is "If Susan Can Learn Physics, So Can You".

"Like most of us, I had heard throughout my life that math and physics were really difficult. If you weren’t “smart”, you shouldn’t even bother trying to learn either, people would say...That is one of the biggest, most hurtful, and most destructive lies anyone can perpetuate...Anyone can learn physics. Anyone can learn math. Being “good at it” or “smart” is beside the point."

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