“Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration... Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” – Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life You're receiving this because you subscribed to receive updates about "Human Software" or you're on my Human DevOps mailing list. The summer season is upon us. Originally I was aiming to have some early chapters of my debut novel "Human Software" available to share with you by the end of July but during the second draft I realised that there's further to go than I thought. These characters need more time to grow. So what about them? Who are they and what do they want? Our main character is Beth. She's a software engineer who works for an American company based in small town in south-east UK. She's responsible for building and supporting global software systems that should be 24/7 available. She's a so-called "DevOps" engineer which from an industry perspective is what we've learnt is the 'sweet spot' for software engineers. Those that understand how the software is built are best-placed to fix it when it goes wrong. But how can you be on-call all the time when you have a life and a family? David is Beth's husband. He's a burnt out engineering leader and now full-time house-husband to their two kids - Maddie who is 17 and Eric who is 12. David has seen first-hand how the industry mistreats individuals at the cost of keeping systems running for customers. He is keen for them as a family to give up on technology and start again doing something more befitting their rural setting. Also meet Chrissie. She's the new executive, arriving in this small town charged with making the hard decisions as she takes over control of a struggling business. She's burdened with the expectation that she puts on herself while she makes a success of this trip far away from her own family and friends. "Human Software" charts the journey of these three as they negotiate the personal and social impact of software systems, security incidents, hacks, failures and ambition. By the end of September or so I aiming to have the first few chapters ready to share with you. There's a quote about your first three novels being mainly autobiographical which I'd love to put here but I can't find it, instead I'll leave you with this quote about writing from the great horror writer Stephen King: "Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right – as right as you can, anyway – it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticise it.” I aim to live by these words! Wishing you a wonderful summer.
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DevOps at is the heart of modern software systems. In my regular newsletter, I dive into the human factors that make successful engineering organizations where teams and platforms thrive at the heart of your socio-technical systems. From leadership to team setup, maximizing performance, tools and techniques.
It has not by any means been a good summer in the Netherlands. It's been very wet and the last few days have also been extremely windy. At work, on the streets and on the roads, there is a tension. I try to take the time to go out for a lunchtime walk at least a couple of times a week and took this photo last week during a gap in the rain. The Middelpolder And we head towards the summer break, make sure to take some time to relax before you face the serious business of relaxation. I'm taking...
I lived in London in 1997 when the Tony Blair "New Labour" government swept into power. It was a time of great hope and audacity. It felt like "we" could do anything, but then I was 25 years old and living in London, and indeed, anything did, in fact, feel possible because I was at the dawn of my career without responsibilities or the weight of history behind my thoughts and actions. So perhaps older and wiser, we are here. The UK has been (according to some) bitten down by 14 years of Tory...
Do you always want more? More opportunities, more recognition for your work, more advancement? Sometimes, it's just knowing more, solving problems, and being right. What do we do to ourselves as software engineers and programmers that makes us want to do more all the time? We want to know more, write more, read more and perhaps even present more. I was interacting with someone on LinkedIn this Friday, and it made me reflect on what I am doing now compared to what I did a year ago. A year ago,...