The Mechanic: Interview with a Site Reliability Engineer and SDET

Today I'm interviewing one of my mentors (and an occasional coworker), Brian! He's a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), former Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), former platform engineer, sysadmin, Java developer, and full-time motorcycle and car restoration/experimentation mechanic. 00:00 Intro 01:30 Brian's Background 10:00 Brian's tech philosophy 11:35 We're All Tech Mechanics 13:38 Impostor Syndrome 16:00 Abstraction is a two-edged sword 17:25 XKCD reference 17:38 Understand the Abstractions 18:45 Curiosity and Enthusiasm as Strengths 19:51 How to start in tech from scratch 24:15 Theory vs Practical Application 26:10 Current favorite tech work 28:35 All devops branding is BS 31:30 Networking for real 34:44 Advantages of middle-aged white dudes 36:30 Reach out and help good people 37:48 Skills people neglect 43:25 Future predictions for the tech world 49:01 Worse is better 51:03 Undifferentiated heavy lifting Linode Referral Link (you get $100 credit when signing up): https://www.linode.com/tutoriallinux Step-by-step project-based Linux course for beginners: https://www.udemy.com/course/hands-on-linux-self-hosted-wordpress-for-linux-beginners/?referralCode=19C0A7DEE2FD53C9C09D Free Linux Sysadmin Course Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtK75qxsQaMLZSo7KL-PmiRarU7hrpnwK Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tutorialinux Official Site & e-mail list: https://tutorialinux.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorialinux Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tutorialinux Podcast: http://kernelpanicpodcast.com