The week so far, a selectionI don’t really know what “platform engineering” isLast episode I shared the the email Q&A I had for an article about platform engineering. The finished article is up, much nicer edited than just copy and pasting my email. It’s part of the buzz around the SHIFT conference next week, which I’ll be at, in Zadar, Croatia. WastebookAlways use the cloakroom for your backpack at a museum.

Press PassI’m speaking at the SHIFT conference next week in Zadar, Croatia. Here’s some questions they asked me ahead of time for their ShiftMag outlet. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t send the third one in and saved it up for this here newsletter. (1) Where do you stand in the DevOps vs. SRE vs. Platform Engineering debate? I guess by stance you mean “are these things different, or all the same thing, really?

Confusing outcomes with capabilitiesI don’t have this sorted out well, but the baby keeps crawling on me to remind me to chill the fuck out about being a professional thought leader and be more of a professional dad. (That’s right, I’m blaming my three year old for the shoddiness of the below!) In the technology world, you are taught to think in terms of “outcomes,” or “business outcomes” to use the longer jargon.

In IowaI was in Des Moines this week to give one of the keynotes at DevOpsDays Des Moines (it went well). Here’s some snapshots from around town: CEO Therapy This week’s Software Defined Talk: This week, we discuss Netflix's DVD deprecation, the remote work debate, and how to fork an open-source project. Plus, thoughts on why Europe needs more ice. Have a listen! TranscriptsFor all the podcasts, videos, conference talks, and even notes to myself: I haven’t figured out what to do with automated transcript systems.

IowaI’m in Des Moines, Iowa for the keynote I’ll be giving at DevOpsDays here. I believe their registration is closed, so…if you’re not already registered, I won’t be seeing you! But, you can check me out rehearsing it here. There’s 20 minutes of bonus content! Like and subscribe, MOFOS! Garbage Chairs of Amsterdam.ChatDM - Dealing with short-term memoryIf you’re interested in my recent experiments to get ChatGPT to act a Dungeon Master for solo-play Dungeons & Dragons, check out my recent write-up.

Trees do not grow in straight rowsThis picture clarified what it’s like to be an American living in Europe. Everyday, you’re confronted by how old everything is. The word “old” deserves attention, and explains the whole point. To an American, “old” tends to be a negative term. (Well, a left leaning American, at least.) But in Europe, you are surrounded by old and there’s a certain comfort to it. I live in The Netherlands, and the thing you realize quickly is that there is very little “nature” in The Netherlands.

Not much today. Halloween Clown TailwindsFrom Chris Rogers at S&P Global Market Intelligence.“Among outfits, the best performers have been those linked to clowns, which increased by 43% year over year.” Somewhere, there's a financial analyst who really cares about the increase in clown costumes this Halloween. Wastebook“So I quit my job as an engineer at Memorex’s disk drive plant in Santa Clara, California, and we flew to Kuala Lumpur. We found an un-air conditioned hotel room for $10 a night above a brothel with genial trans prostitutes and ate $1 meals served on banana leaves from the nearby restaurants.

Jennifer Riggins and The New Stack crew have a good booklet out on Platform Engineering. I read over it and talked with Jennifer a couple times. I should have recorded those calls to munge into some articles, but, whatever. You should check it out, I think it’s a good go at trying to nail down exactly what that term means. This month, at least :) Download the ebook for free

Don’t get hung up on “customer value” and “business value”I feel like this metaphor of “customer value” (and “business value”) has gone too far. It’s become something that people think is real, not just metaphor. Instead of “value” what we’re talking about is something like “is useful at a price the customer will pay.” Jobs to Be Done theory feels a lot closer to real. The other issue: there are not ROI spreadsheets for a lot of things in our personal lives.

Suggested episode theme song. How are things going for you?Avoid using Vision and Strategy as an Executive Peace OutHere is something from an article I’m reviewing for a co-worker: It’s vital for any digital transformation to have a clear vision, purpose and a set of expected business outcomes. It lets everyone know what is changing, why it’s changing, and how it will positively impact the organization. All too often though, that simple message becomes bloated or lost entirely as the project moves forward.