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I do contracting dev work and my specialty is being able to drill down into any part of the engineering assets, ops, sec, dev. People think someone like me is s

I do contracting dev work and my specialty is being able to drill down into any part of the engineering assets, ops, sec, dev. People think someone like me is slow and expensive until they have a problem that no one else wants to touch.

whimsicalism 5y ago
> Surely we are way past the point where someone knows how the whole thing works, all the way down. So you are disagreeing with this statement and saying that, in fact, you are the person who knows how the whole thing works? I knew tech work produced some large egos, but sheesh.
- rch 5y ago
  This type of person exists, and while rare, not as rare as some seem to assume.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    There is nobody who exists who would be able to recreate a modern computer from scratch.
    - gitfan86 5y ago
      When you say 'modern' do you mean with photolithography?
      - whimsicalism 5y ago
        Yes, I do, keeping with the spirit of re-building the metaphorical "baths" of modern civilization. But even if I didn't mean that, there still is nobody who could do it.
    - 8note 5y ago
      No one person could recreate the pyramids from scratch either, and that's a pile of rocks
      - whimsicalism 5y ago
        But they could teach others the principle and have them follow their directions to recreate it. I'm saying no such person, even one who built up a team that they taught, exists for the modern computer.
hiptobecubic 5y ago
I also specialize in being great at everything.
sulam 5y ago
Not at all diminishing what you do, but surely you have a limit past which you say "that's outside of my expertise, or what's reasonable for me to gain expertise given the scope of this issue"? For instance, I manage a team that does "full stack" development, where full stack means I regularly interact with mechanical and manufacturing, operations, electrical engineers, battery and radio people, embedded developers, mobile, and most aspects of backend engineering. We had an issue where one of our chip suppliers changed their FW, didn't tell us, and we literally were taking apart units to get to the bottom of why units off the line weren't working properly. We go pretty deep. Still, at some point we throw our hands in the air and say "Hardware is hard, it's in the name."
- gitfan86 5y ago
  This was meant to be in the context of hosting software services on AWS. Certainly there is a limit. If a MBP get a crack in the case, I'm not going to figure out how to machine a piece of aluminum into a new case, I'll replace the laptop.
opportune 5y ago
You know how to debug kernel issues? You know how AWS virtualization works and how to diagnose a problem with the AWS networking stack?
- dijit 5y ago
  These are not as hard things as you make them sound. They are the things traditional sysadmins spent time understanding. But I am also incredulous by the parent. I wouldn’t be able to diagnose traces on a motherboard or a defective (but partially functioning) CPU. I wouldn’t be able to diagnose irregular voltage conditions or drop offs. The amount of stuff that I know I couldn’t diagnose is absurdly high, but the amount I don’t even know that I can’t diagnose is higher still. And my job, like the parents, is to drill down and spend time in specifics.
- gitfan86 5y ago
  You know how to debug kernel issues? Yes You know how AWS virtualization works and how to diagnose a problem with the AWS networking stack? Yes, and yes assuming that everything AWS is responsible for is operating within spec. Obviously, I don't have access to their switches, and cannot see anything at layer 1 or 2.

whimsicalism 5y ago

> Surely we are way past the point where someone knows how the whole thing works, all the way down. So you are disagreeing with this statement and saying that, in fact, you are the person who knows how the whole thing works? I knew tech work produced some large egos, but sheesh.

rch 5y ago
This type of person exists, and while rare, not as rare as some seem to assume.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  There is nobody who exists who would be able to recreate a modern computer from scratch.
  - gitfan86 5y ago
    When you say 'modern' do you mean with photolithography?
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      Yes, I do, keeping with the spirit of re-building the metaphorical "baths" of modern civilization. But even if I didn't mean that, there still is nobody who could do it.
  - 8note 5y ago
    No one person could recreate the pyramids from scratch either, and that's a pile of rocks
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      But they could teach others the principle and have them follow their directions to recreate it. I'm saying no such person, even one who built up a team that they taught, exists for the modern computer.

hiptobecubic 5y ago

I also specialize in being great at everything.

sulam 5y ago

Not at all diminishing what you do, but surely you have a limit past which you say "that's outside of my expertise, or what's reasonable for me to gain expertise given the scope of this issue"? For instance, I manage a team that does "full stack" development, where full stack means I regularly interact with mechanical and manufacturing, operations, electrical engineers, battery and radio people, embedded developers, mobile, and most aspects of backend engineering. We had an issue where one of our chip suppliers changed their FW, didn't tell us, and we literally were taking apart units to get to the bottom of why units off the line weren't working properly. We go pretty deep. Still, at some point we throw our hands in the air and say "Hardware is hard, it's in the name."

gitfan86 5y ago
This was meant to be in the context of hosting software services on AWS. Certainly there is a limit. If a MBP get a crack in the case, I'm not going to figure out how to machine a piece of aluminum into a new case, I'll replace the laptop.

opportune 5y ago

You know how to debug kernel issues? You know how AWS virtualization works and how to diagnose a problem with the AWS networking stack?

dijit 5y ago
These are not as hard things as you make them sound. They are the things traditional sysadmins spent time understanding. But I am also incredulous by the parent. I wouldn’t be able to diagnose traces on a motherboard or a defective (but partially functioning) CPU. I wouldn’t be able to diagnose irregular voltage conditions or drop offs. The amount of stuff that I know I couldn’t diagnose is absurdly high, but the amount I don’t even know that I can’t diagnose is higher still. And my job, like the parents, is to drill down and spend time in specifics.
gitfan86 5y ago
You know how to debug kernel issues? Yes You know how AWS virtualization works and how to diagnose a problem with the AWS networking stack? Yes, and yes assuming that everything AWS is responsible for is operating within spec. Obviously, I don't have access to their switches, and cannot see anything at layer 1 or 2.