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hullsean

101 karma · joined October 4, 2011

I'm an Amazon Solutions Architect, advisor, author & speaker. I build & automate infrastructure for startups to scale. I blog weekly & publish a monthly newsletter on innovation.

www.iheavy.com/blog/

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hullsean··on Ask HN: Tips on Sysadmin Job
I’ve been doing the above as a consultant for a couple of decades. Here’s what I see:

o As others have said it’s a lot. That said it sounds like management trusts uou. More than hiring someone off the street to take the reigns. This means there is room to breathe and room to fail a little bit.

o Talk to all biz units to learn what services they rely on. Thus will not be 1:1 with servers and applications as you see them. But it’s an important starting point.

o Inventory all the systems that you can see/find.

o identify backups, DR and put together a list of your concerns. Document this and share with management. This will give you cover.

o develop your own priority list. Be prepared for management to give you a different set of priorities. You will need to learn skills of push back and compromise.

o learn to reach “good enough” in the short term. If you try to fix everything elegantly and perfectly other problems will wait longer.

hullsean··on Greek myths of programming – how to find a mythological god of programming?
Prometheus… though you may not like what you find.
hullsean··on Ask HN: How can I get better at original thinking and being creative?
I recommend Julia Cameron’s book the Artists way. It’s designed as a course in creative recovery. With daily & weekly homework. Brilliant stuff…
hullsean··on Btop++ is a power resource monitor for Linux
Wow. That’s hot!
hullsean··on Commodore 64 Program Discovered on 35-Year Old Vinyl Album (2019)
This is so classic, bravo!
hullsean··on Ask HN: Why do people love Slack?
Slack is a huge time waster. It is a constant distraction. As as it becomes standardized it’s assumed you will be on it all the tome. Through the workday and even after. The only time can get work done without distractions is after hours.

With slack the world becomes one big long meeting. Lol

Also as a consultant it is a problem. With email I have paper trails of conversations. But with slack when engagement is ending I lose all that discussion & history. It forces me to double up my note taking (more lost time) and try to hack a backup of some of that stuff as an engagement ends.

Yes I get the advantages but those have long since been buried by all it’s problems

hullsean··on How do you encourage an employee to not go all the way down the rabbit hole?
Hard to change someone’s nature. I agree with @viraptor put them on something requiring indepth research. :)
hullsean··on Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?
The concept of “literacy” is relative to begin with.
hullsean··on Ask HN: How do you work with the fear of your own incompetence?
Imposter syndrome. It’s a thing.
hullsean··on Do You Want to Be Doing This When You're 50?
Yeah. Ditto. 49 myself. I enjoy coding as much as I did when I was 20. Do I need to be learning everyday? Yep. Same as back then. And I enjoy it just as much :)
hullsean··on Ask HN: Developers aged 50, how have you gotten around age discrimination?
The same way i did at 25. Be better!
hullsean··on Ask HN: Is software engineering really a dead-end job after 35-40?
Your mileage may vary of course. But i’ve been independent consulting now for 25yrs. Started doing primarily dba/unix work in the 90’s and now of course cloud heavy. Devops is in extremely high demand. i do docker, ecs, terraform, kubernetes, aws, gcp. Python. postgresql, mysql, redshift. athena. it goes on & on.

yes as others have mentioned you have to be willing to learn. to be also excited to learn. that’s key.

i’m also much more mature now. so i can work well with anyone and see perspectives others miss.

opportunities abound !

hullsean··on Not all bugs are worth fixing and that's okay
Thanks Kristine for the link to my article...

Myth of Five Nines - why high availability is overrated https://www.iheavy.com/2012/04/01/the-myth-of-five-nines-why...

hullsean··on Ask HN: Most interesting coworking spaces in Bay Area?
aws popup loft is free and matches your list pretty well
hullsean··on Ask HN: How to become a freelancer?
im in new york. been freelancing for 23 years. demand has never been greater.

differentiate. brand yourself. and learn to tell your story aka “sell” yourself.

how can you help? what problem can you solve?

as long as there are consulting services companies there will forever be work.

keep learning!

hullsean··on Why Great Employees Quit – Instead of Admitting They're Unhappy
Why call it quitting? That’s just an old world frame. a job should last a lifetime.

i rather think each project is a learning experience for both company & candidate.

i’ve had 200 jobs in my career. it’s going great!

hullsean··on Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?
that’s called hiring a consultant... just sayin
hullsean··on How to Find Consulting Clients
I've written quite a bit about this topic (www.iheavy.com)

Yes getting "out of the building" is important, and going out & meeting people is key. All the time. Also don't hard sell people. Instead introduce one person to another person. At first you are simply giving your connections. But soon people see you as a go-to person, and will bring things to you. Also people don't forget gifts of introductions & business you bring.

Another thing. Don't go to "peer" events with other engineers. These events are useful to build your knowledge, but not work building your business. Stronger leads come from business owners, managers & CTOs. Start going to events outside your subject area of expertise. Go to pitch events, vc events, startup events, entrepreneur events.

You will be surprised how valuable you will be in a non-tech business event. This will also teach you to communicate better with non-tech folks. And share what you know. Also ask people, "what events do you recommend?" Then go to those events. And so on!

hullsean··on Why Does “=” Mean Assignment?
for me it’s := and probably always will be. those fond memories
hullsean··on Ask HN: Strategies for database reliability when I have no control over the DB?
This is an organizational alignment issue. your application SLOs can be at but not above your dependent components. if that db has 90% uptime than your application cannot be better. add an outage message that makes the cause loud & clear
hullsean··on Is Ada a failed language?
any language older than 5yrs is a failed language. perl, ruby are recent memories.

i’m starting to realize the only industry more fashion conscious than software is... well fashion!

Ada?! ahahahaah

hullsean··on Ask HN: Hoping to relocate to NYC. Any tips?
• garys guide <- best resource • inside startups • hackernest • warby parker, etsy many others • code driven are good • aws popup loft • most wework spaces have events.
hullsean··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2018)
Your email bounces. Is that spelled correctly?
hullsean··on Ask HN: What Are Your New Years Resolutions or 2018 Goals?
o continue to grow my meditation practice o pickup an aws cert o close 5x new projects o travel 3x
hullsean··on Ask HN: What Are Your New Years Resolutions or 2018 Goals?
s&p 500 + real estate if you can.
hullsean··on A link between polygamy and war
correlation does not equal causation.

the article does not seem to consider open relationships and the many other non-traditional arrangements that are becoming more common & widespread.

hullsean··on Rethinking how the US grows beef
perhaps if we start pricing in the healthcare costs, the market will take care of this problem.
hullsean··on Two Weeks Notice Is Bullshit: The Modern Resignation Letter
capitalism is a rough game. sometimes people fight dirty.

the caution i would add is, you could try to play nice & the employer gets pissed anyway and say “you know what, you can leave today!”. one must prepare contingency plans on both sides.

if you want someone who will never quit, hire an independent consultant.

hullsean··on How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
this is another reason weekly billing works in everyone’s favor. in the former ex, the customer would not lose with hourly billing. with weekly billing they become very motivated to resolve hurdles to your success
hullsean··on How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
yes. they are head shops. but one key detail. you are working for them. not the reverse. the relationship with the customer is very valuable
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