$ cat post/chmod-seven-seven-seven-/-i-parsed-the-pcap-for-hours-/-it-ran-in-the-dark.md
chmod seven seven seven / I parsed the pcap for hours / it ran in the dark
Title: The Year of Overwhelming Choices and Tough Decisions
January 16th, 2023—It’s been a year where the tech industry has felt like being in a giant candy store with every flavor under the sun. As an engineer who spends most days thinking about how to make infrastructure work harder for us rather than the other way around, it feels both exhilarating and overwhelming.
On one hand, we have this explosion of AI/ML capabilities—like that NanogPT I’ve been poking at on the side. It’s a fascinating journey, but honestly, I feel like I’m drowning in tutorials and hype cycles. Meanwhile, platform engineering is becoming mainstream—something my team and I have been advocating for years. Yet, with every new framework or service popping up, it’s hard to keep track of which ones are actually worth investing time into.
The CNCF landscape is a mess, and not just because there are too many acronyms to remember. It’s like trying to navigate through a dense forest without a map. WebAssembly on the server side has been gaining traction, but as someone who’s been skeptical about it due to its performance overhead, I’m still weighing the pros and cons.
Developer experience is finally getting some attention, which is great because we’ve always known that making sure developers are productive and happy is crucial. But with all these new tools, it feels like every day brings a new way of doing things. It’s like trying to keep up with the latest trends while also delivering quality code on tight deadlines.
FinOps and cloud cost pressure have become real concerns for us. As someone who’s always had a practical side when it comes to infrastructure, this is actually making me appreciate my old-school ways even more. But I can’t help but wonder if the future of cloud isn’t going to be about finding that perfect balance between cost and performance.
DORA metrics are now widely adopted, which means everyone’s talking about deployment frequency and lead time. It’s good in theory, but let’s face it—sometimes a quick fix is just what you need. The question is: how do we balance the need for speed with maintaining quality?
Staff+ engineering tracks have normalized, which is great because it means there’s recognition that not everyone needs to be coding all day long. But as an engineer who loves diving deep into problems, this can sometimes feel like a step back. I mean, if you’re not working on hard technical challenges every day, what are you doing?
One of the things I’ve been wrestling with is how much time to spend on exploring new technologies versus focusing on maintaining and improving existing systems. On one hand, it’s tempting to jump into something shiny and exciting. But then there’s this nagging feeling that maybe I should just stick to the stuff that works well enough right now.
And then of course, there are these crazy news stories that remind me how much is going on in tech. Like that Google layoffs story—I mean, 12k people? That’s a massive impact. Or that guy who forked Chrome to render in a terminal—brilliant hack or just a bit overkill?
The whole zeitgeist feels like it’s shifting faster than we can keep up with. But you know what? That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It means there are always new challenges and opportunities to learn from.
So here’s to another year of hard work, tough decisions, and hopefully some fun hacks along the way. Let’s make 2023 count!
That’s my take on where we stand right now. What about you? Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the choices or are you embracing the chaos with open arms?