Update

 Powered up the computer for something else, and figured while I was on it I'd knock out a longer post.

Except I don't really have anything in mind. Guess I'll just start with where I'm at right now...

Work has been busy. We've had some turnover, so now I'm suddenly one of the more experienced members of our team - and am helping train the new arrivals. 

That's been... interesting. It was only a few years ago that I was in their shoes, and I remember how much of a struggle it was to learn what I needed to learn. And yet now that I'm on the other side, I also see how hard it is to try to teach them.

It's not teaching in general that's the problem. I like to think I'm somewhat decent at that.

It's that the things we do are complicated, and require a background in a variety of technologies.

You don't have to be an expert in all of them, but you have to know how to look things up. You also have to know how to make educated guesses about what the error messages are telling you, and have a decent enough grasp of the technology to know where you should look.

I don't think I'm explaining that very well...

Just the other day the offshore team passed along an issue during our handover meeting. There was a problem with some of the containers, and they thought it was related to something else. Which sort of made sense based on the error they found.

However, if the problem was where they thought it was we would have seen the same problem affecting other environments. That technology was used for all of them, and should have impacted them all the same way. 

That wasn't the case.

Our team lead helped identify the problem, some parameters were configured wrong (to a machine that had been decommissioned over a year ago, which raises the question 'why did we only see this problem now?') and we were able to fix the issue...

But you have to know enough to know that we'd been looking in the wrong spot.

On any given day I don't really know what I'll be working with... which I kind of like, tbh. I like the variety and I like the puzzle solving aspect. But on any given day I might need to understand how the operating system works, how networking works, how to read a script, how to manage ssh keys, how to work with git, how to work with databases, how automated tools work, and more. Maybe not as a full-fledged expert, but enough to know what to search for or who to reach out to.

I've realized that giving some training (with a powerpoint that has screenshots and commands used) isn't necessarily enough. The trainee has to take that information and try doing it themselves. Make it their own. 

I don't want to make it any harder than it has to be, but I also feel like (so long as something isn't a priority) letting them flail around a bit while trying to resolve an issue is part of the learning process. There are things they don't really grasp until they run into it themselves. 

Like, I've learned to always make sure I've got the latest version if I'm modifying some files maintained by some form of version control. Or to take a backup if I'm modifying something that isn't. (Well, take a backup regardless. Makes it so much easier to revert a change if you need to.)

I can say that, and demonstrate that, but when it comes time to do it themselves they tend to forget. Until you suddenly have a merge conflict or need to revert something and don't remember what was in the original. 

Anyways, I didn't plan on writing so much about work. I didn't really plan on writing much of anything, but I think I'll move on.

I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once, one of the rare times I actually went to see a movie in theater. My brother mentioned it when we were deciding what to watch a couple weeks ago, and even though that wasn't the movie we decided on it looked interesting enough that I decided to check it out.

It is pretty awesome, I highly recommend it. It especially felt like a great counter to the nihilism that seems so everpresent today. 

There just seems to be so much wrong with the world... and too few people working to actually fix it. (Instead, we get story after story of some wealthy fool actively making things worse. What is it about extreme wealth that makes people so messed up? And why do all the rest of us have to suffer because of their poor decisions?)

I'm rather sick of talking about that though... the ones who need to hear it won't, and the rest of us know it all too well.

On a related note, it's still very disturbing to realize how badly our news agencies are doing at keeping us informed about important topics.

For example - India/Pakistan is having a crazy heat wave, temperatures above 120F. Some guy set himself on fire in protest because of climate change. And scientists have issued yet another warning that something needs done, and quick, or we face real consequences.

But it hardly makes a blip in the news. The powers-that-be seem to have decided that doing nothing is the best answer. Much like they've done with other hot topics...

and the crappy part is that they aren't the ones who will suffer the consequences. (The older ones may even successfully pass on without seeing any consequences at all. The younger ones may manage to avoid them... for a time. You'd think if they were serious about long term thinking they'd understand that a system has to benefit everyone. Any system that 'works' while making some sub-class miserable is not a system worth supporting. Not in a 'you have to give them what they want' kind of way, but in the same way a family negotiates where they're going out to eat. Uh... at least, my experience of such a thing. I suppose there are some families that don't listen to or care about what some of the members want, but they sound like pretty crappy families too.)

All right, that's enough for the night. I'm also worried about whatever the heck Russia is planning for May 9th (my thoughts go out to the Ukrainians suffering under their invasion). 

And also concerned that so much of the news about January 6th barely seems to get the attention it deserves. (The Ginny Thomas stuff has pretty much disappeared now... )

I hope that's just because the wheels of justice are turning slowly, because if nothing is done it sets a very dangerous precedent, and I fear for our future.