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Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

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Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#11

Post by pavs »

zedshaw wrote: post #6
alnayyir wrote: post #4

>If you got something interesting that doesn't involve me being a system administrator Is it me, or is this a running meme/problem for him?

No it's not you, I do get asked to be a sysadmin quite often. I have no idea why. It's not something I'm good at. I did for a short time in college to pay tuition a decade ago. I don't enjoy it. I never apply for it. For some bizarre reason, people ask if I want to be a sysadmin out of the blue. Drives me crazy.

Just curious, what would be your ideal job? Assuming you want to work for someone and not just on your own projects.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#14

Post by jrockway »

starkfist wrote: post #8
zedshaw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not you, I do get asked to be a sysadmin quite often. I have no idea why. It's not something I'm good at. I did for a short time in college to pay tuition a decade ago. I don't enjoy it. I never apply for it. For some bizarre reason, people ask if I want to be a sysadmin out of the blue. Drives me crazy.

It's not that bizarre, you write software mainly used by systems administrators. I used to work with one of the guys who wrote apache, and now work with a guy who wrote most of one of the popular NOSQL engines. And they both work as systems administrators. Not "useradd" systems administrators (although they are technically in that part of the org chart) but more like what Google calls "SREs." Rather than explaining w…

Google says something like that for every job. From what I know about SREs, the "programming" you do is basically shell scripts to automate sysadmin stuff. Programming, sure, but the most boring type possible.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#15

Post by mkramlich »

Zed, you totally have to write some great new rants now.

(Not related to Dropbox, not what I'm implying. Just that you should have more free time to write for a while, so we'd love to see the fruits of it.)

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#16

Post by starkfist »

jrockway wrote: post #14
starkfist wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that bizarre, you write software mainly used by systems administrators. I used to work with one of the guys who wrote apache, and now work with a guy who wrote most of one of the popular NOSQL engines. And they both work as systems administrators. Not "useradd" systems administrators (although they are technically in that part of the org chart) but more like what Google calls "SREs." Rather than explaining w…

Google says something like that for every job. From what I know about SREs, the "programming" you do is basically shell scripts to automate sysadmin stuff. Programming, sure, but the most boring type possible.

I like automating sysadmin stuff. :(

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#18

Post by spudlyo »

jrockway wrote: post #14
starkfist wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that bizarre, you write software mainly used by systems administrators. I used to work with one of the guys who wrote apache, and now work with a guy who wrote most of one of the popular NOSQL engines. And they both work as systems administrators. Not "useradd" systems administrators (although they are technically in that part of the org chart) but more like what Google calls "SREs." Rather than explaining w…

Google says something like that for every job. From what I know about SREs, the "programming" you do is basically shell scripts to automate sysadmin stuff. Programming, sure, but the most boring type possible.

That kind of programming to me is fun. The most boring type of programming possible in my opinion is front end web development.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#19

Post by zedshaw »

SlyShy wrote: post #9
zedshaw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, there was an entire thread just right now about it, and if you don't deal with the rumors right away they spread like herpes.

I read the thread. What I wrote was unclear though, sorry. What I meant was, it's stupid that you'd have to do that, because people shouldn't be starting rumor mills in the first place.

Well, it's stupid but I learned the hard way if you don't shut down people who slander in the tech world then the rumor mongers take it to mean you're weak and the slanderers are right. Sucks, but the alternative is to give folks with no integrity a way to tear you down.

In other words, there really is no higher ground in tech unless you're already rich.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#20

Post by starkfist »

spudlyo wrote: post #18
jrockway wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google says something like that for every job. From what I know about SREs, the "programming" you do is basically shell scripts to automate sysadmin stuff. Programming, sure, but the most boring type possible.

That kind of programming to me is fun. The most boring type of programming possible in my opinion is front end web development.

Personally, I cannot stand the type of programming which is encapsulating a bunch of "BUSINESS LOGIC" in code. I.e. "apply this much tax unless we are in florida or new york, then apply this much. except on the day after christmas..." or even worse, "restrict these parts of the site to the accounting department, except for gary because he's in fiance, too" etc.
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