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I don’t really expect just to do the fun stuff at work, but modern technology seems to progressively burn me out more and more. I was drawn to software at a ti

by cblum 6y ago

I don’t really expect just to do the fun stuff at work, but modern technology seems to progressively burn me out more and more. I was drawn to software at a time when it seemed like we had control over things. With the advent of the cloud I feel like that control keeps slipping away more and more. Kubernetes is my new nemesis. I seem to be in the minority that perceives it as unnecessarily complex for most tasks. Someone once commented here on HN that the k8s trend made them think people are trying to pretend their code doesn’t run on hardware anymore, and that really resonated with me.

jimbokun 6y ago
> I seem to be in the minority that perceives it as unnecessarily complex for most tasks. My boss recently introduced Kubernetes to our software deployment. The first thing he said, though, is if you don't absolutely need Kubernetes, don't use it. It is extremely complicated and finicky and difficult to deploy correctly, and can bite you in subtle ways. Then he went on to describe, for our problems, how Kubernetes was absolutely necessary to scale without constant manual intervention and configuration and deployment processes consuming our time. I appreciated that he had thoroughly thought through the problem before adding more complexity.
- cblum 6y ago
  That's really cool of him. I do think there are options to achieve all of that - scale without manual intervention, etc. - without Kubernetes though. At least where I work, if I look at the deployment issues we have, those are all the product of bad decisions and lack of action due to higher priorities. There's no reason why there couldn't be more automation. They're building something new on Kubernetes which looks promising (though I really hope that as an app developer I don't have to think of Kubernetes things, which just irk me), but the current platform would work well too if investment was made into automating the parts that aren't automated.
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    > I do think there are options to achieve all of that - scale without manual intervention, etc. - without Kubernetes though. Indeed. Haven't people been doing that since, well, cloud computing?

by cblum 6y ago

jimbokun 6y ago

> I seem to be in the minority that perceives it as unnecessarily complex for most tasks. My boss recently introduced Kubernetes to our software deployment. The first thing he said, though, is if you don't absolutely need Kubernetes, don't use it. It is extremely complicated and finicky and difficult to deploy correctly, and can bite you in subtle ways. Then he went on to describe, for our problems, how Kubernetes was absolutely necessary to scale without constant manual intervention and configuration and deployment processes consuming our time. I appreciated that he had thoroughly thought through the problem before adding more complexity.

cblum 6y ago
That's really cool of him. I do think there are options to achieve all of that - scale without manual intervention, etc. - without Kubernetes though. At least where I work, if I look at the deployment issues we have, those are all the product of bad decisions and lack of action due to higher priorities. There's no reason why there couldn't be more automation. They're building something new on Kubernetes which looks promising (though I really hope that as an app developer I don't have to think of Kubernetes things, which just irk me), but the current platform would work well too if investment was made into automating the parts that aren't automated.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  > I do think there are options to achieve all of that - scale without manual intervention, etc. - without Kubernetes though. Indeed. Haven't people been doing that since, well, cloud computing?