June 7th, 2021. I sat down at my desk for the day with a mix of excitement and dread. The excitement was partly due to the fact that I had been spending some extra hours on the weekend setting up our new internal developer portal using Backstage.io. It’s like the tech ops version of a home renovation project, but instead of repainting walls or installing shelves, we were working with YAML files and API endpoints.

Dread, on the other hand, came from the thought that I was about to spend the day debugging Kubernetes clusters and eBPF scripts, which can be as thrilling as being trapped in a game of Jenga. But there’s always a silver lining, right?

That morning, GitHub Copilot had been sitting quietly on my machine, a bit like a mysterious stranger lurking in the corner of your room. It had promised to help write code, but I was skeptical; I didn’t need someone telling me what to do every five lines.

Then, out of nowhere, it spit out some code that looked suspiciously familiar—like someone had been reading my thoughts. It wasn’t just a snippet or two; this time, Copilot had written an entire function for one of our microservices. I couldn’t believe it!

I spent the next few minutes debating whether to commit this code. Was it really me writing this? Or was it Copilot’s version of my inner genius at work? The temptation was strong—I mean, who doesn’t want a free developer on their team?

But then reality kicked in: the function didn’t make sense in context. There were some syntax errors and logic gaps that made it clear this wasn’t just a casual suggestion—it needed human intervention. I spent an hour or so fixing up the code, but by then, my initial excitement had turned into frustration.

Around lunchtime, I decided to take a break from all things tech. Maybe a bit of remote work was starting to take its toll. So, I fired off some emails, set up a video call with a colleague, and did something completely unrelated: watched an old episode of Friends on Netflix.

When I came back, the real world had moved on. Kubernetes clusters were still running, eBPF scripts were still being debugged, but Copilot seemed to have vanished into thin air. Maybe it had decided that my brain was too busy for its services and took a well-deserved day off.

Reflecting on the day, I couldn’t help but chuckle. GitHub Copilot may not be here today, but I’ve definitely learned something valuable about trusting new technologies. Maybe someday soon, I’ll find myself thanking it for the code fixes, even if it did make me take an unexpected break from tech.

That’s the thing about life in the era of platform engineering and Kubernetes complexity—there are always surprises waiting around the corner. Sometimes they’re helpful, sometimes they’re just a reminder that we need to step away for a bit. Either way, it keeps things interesting.