Always Be Connecting Dots (ABCD)

I think it was Rajeev Pandey who shared this with me.

Technology is complicated and getting more so. Take Kubernetes as an example. To understand the environment that created it, it’s useful to know how Google builds their data centers and about the cluster operating system they use (borg - a predecessor to Kubernetes). It’s also useful to know the other history to Kubernetes at Google. All of this is in addition to knowing the API and how resources work.

This context to Kubernetes matters because many people use Kubernetes in a way that makes their costs higher than they need to be.

I’m not suggesting someone needs to read all of these documents – and there are more of them – to make good use of Kubernetes. But, there are useful pieces of information to know.

Context and those useful pieces of information are something many are missing. If you’re an expert in something there is so much others just don’t know. Possibly even things that are foundational.

Of the professional developers on Stack Overflow, approximately 40% learned to code less than 10 years ago.

The Stack Overflow survey shines some light on experience. If you look at all developers, the number jumps to 47% who learned to code less than 10 years ago.

In addition to learning a programming language there are things like learning the business context one is developing in. For example, finance people need to learn about the legal aspects, what customers need, security (maybe?), and more. That’s a lot to be learning in a short time.

Now, consider learning all of that and then also needing to learn about Kubernetes.

Kubernetes is just an example. I only pick it as a target because I work with it all the time.

Life is full of these things. Context, details, and more. For those who have learned a lot, it’s useful to help people connect the dots. They may not see what you see or understand why it matters.

Always Be Connecting Dots.