AWS re:Invent was this week. I put a whole section in the notes this week for y’all all about AWS re:Invent. There were a lot of cool announcements this week. There was a scenario where I was going to be there. But, family was getting COVID-19 vaccines the Sunday before, I had doctor’s appointments, and it wasn’t meant to be. Thank the Maker I didn’t end up going. This week has been a nightmare, wrapped in worry, with a big dose of impostor syndrome on top, and I caught a cold too. First, there were multiple family crises. At one point in time my sole focus was on two of my nephews because we needed to watch them at one point with an extra dose of sunshine. Really glad I was here to help and support. Then part of a terror plot unfolded in our front yards. This story is really sad, bad, and preventable. A lot of people failed in their responsibilities and people are dead as a result. It’s a truly horrible situation. Max was home from school for two days this week. Again, glad I was here to help and support. I think everyone in the know was definitely pegged out on the stress meter. Normally, I turn to work to help distract me from stress but, I’m still forming my path. That’s when the impostor syndrome set in (because that’s a totally normal reaction). Thankfully, this video helped with the impostor syndrome. I got the ship righted by Friday. But, wow… This week has been something else. ...

“PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SIMPLIFY THIS CODE. KEEP THE SPACE SHUTTLE FLYING.”: This almost 2000 lines of code that make up the persistent volume controller was one of the most popular social media posts this week: 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 // ================================================================== // PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SIMPLIFY THIS CODE. // KEEP THE SPACE SHUTTLE FLYING. // ================================================================== // // This controller is intentionally written in a very verbose style. You will // notice: // // 1. Every 'if' statement has a matching 'else' (exception: simple error // checks for a client API call) // 2. Things that may seem obvious are commented explicitly // // We call this style 'space shuttle style'. Space shuttle style is meant to // ensure that every branch and condition is considered and accounted for - // the same way code is written at NASA for applications like the space // shuttle. // Two things struck me about this comment: ...

Editor’s note: Times are hard for a lot of folks right now. Take your time. Your emotions are valid. Process them. Managers should give their people some grace over the coming days. Reader’s in pain, I am with you. This week has been a week of milestones. 1) My daughter turned 21. Yes, I feel old. 2) Julie and I are celebrating ten years of marriage this weekend in Traverse City, Michigan. On #1, Aubree has been in my life for more than half of it now. In the late 00s, I said one day, “Being a father helps me be a better leader. Being a leader helps me be a better father.” During one busy summer, I had 50 people working for me at one point. Managing that many direct reports isn’t something you do easily. My trick was to manage the natural groups of friends that formed. But still, maintain team cohesion. At the same time, I was playing the role of a single father to a Kindergartner. A lot of the skills I was teaching at work were helpful at home and vice versa. I had to deliver presentations to senior leaders. This was very normal for the work I did. ...

bellwether — noun — a person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend; index. I want to introduce a metric I use to evaluate potential employers. I have bellwethers. People that I respect and whose work interests me. I use them to gauge my potential for success at a company. I keep a mental list of folks and where they’re working. In some cases, when I start to evaluate a specific employer, I check how long they’ve been there and often ask folks who have been there a long time how to succeed. These bellwethers have to be people you can call or chat with when you have questions. Often they’re folks that you have established relationships. Even better, have a bunch of bellwethers; this way, if you end up with multiple opportunities, you know folks at each potential employer, you can have a chat. These can be local, national, or international. But, two keys, you have to know them and have a lot of them. ...

Note: The Notes file this week is DEFINITELY worth looking at this week too. The people have spoken. DevOps’ish won’t be changing its name any time soon. I received a lot of great feedback; thank you for that. As I’m writing this, I can feel the effects of my COVID-19 booster kicking in. The joint pain is the tell for me. Max received his first shot today too. He and I will be pretty sore in the morning. Max is genuinely excited to get his vaccinations and get back to gallivanting across the globe. It’s looking like we’ll be heading to San Diego at some point in Q1 2022. Having just gotten back from Los Angeles, I can definitively say I’m comfortable taking the family back to California. Meanwhile, onboarding at AWS is going well. Amazon has a rigorous onboarding process that will ultimately inform me more about the culture and how work happens. I know it sounds like I’m marveling at the process, but it’s the most rigorous onboarding process I’ve been through in the private sector. It’s awesome. I know where tools are that I would’ve had to learn through osmosis at other companies. I’m behind on all of it, and while that’s fine (the point is to finish it over a longer time arc than I’m allowing). I’m getting through it, but there are just some things I won’t fully grasp at first and will need to see in practice (this is a personality trait). I have to commit to adapting to the Process and Tools. I’m starting to see where I can fit in, too, so there will be some technical work starting soon. It’s a good feeling because Friday, all I wanted to do was “be productive.” Get some onboarding done and some upstream work done. That felt nice. Waking up to merged PRs on a Saturday morning will always feel good. ...