Same build your own project. As a full stack I wanted to know what devops and infrastructures was all about I went down the rabbit hole. I made my own Kubernetes, Istios, Helm charts, CI/CD, throw everything you can at it with even some eBPF and stuff. I learn sooo much. And it was so good to see the progress and getting the gotcha of the field. For instance one back then was how do you use kubernetes with databases. (I think it’s pretty much solved now but not 100% sure I have to check again). That was very different from what I usually do. And I mean it was functioning!

You can’t beat this type of knowledge. And you learn even more things on the side. I am still blown away by the capabilities of eBPF and what the guy at Netflix does with it for instance. Or stuff like Falco. And if someone (here a devops let’s say) think your are like half bluffing you can show them exactly that you are not. And it also work to spot those that are bluffing and really just read a blog post about it.

Which comes back to the question: better to learn by doing and then you see more the real experts and can lean on them. Or continue yourself to be one.

So ya best way to get knowledge. Like we say there is no free lunch.