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.

A quick one today, no time to compile the links and stuff Writing good MC scripts for the keynote sessionsI’ve been writing the MC script for our upcoming SpringOne conference. I was supposed to go be one of the MCs but had to cancel. It would have been awesome to know both sides of MC script writing - creating it, and reading it. I wrote the MC script last year. And, you know, I’ve watched lots of main stage keynote dog and pony shows (and plenty of goat rodeos).

I’ve had an unhealthy1 obsession with getting my kids to play D&D recently - they asked to! So, I haven’t had my usual liminal time to get a newsletter out. To that end, my son wanted to make a harpy character. While there are home-brew (is that the right lingo? I stopped playing D&D in about 1993, maybe ‘92) harpy character races, we encountered a problem: harpies don’t have hands, really.

PSA: I recommend that you use your personal email address to subscribe to this newsletter. We're approaching and in layoff and job change season. Starting now to the end of the CY/FY, bonuses are paid out, promotions have been denied or gained, etc. If you're subscribed with your work email, consider switching to a personal email address. 📨 📨 📨 📨 📨 Hunting for the cloud native and kubernetes pay-offThis is an excerpt from my talk yesterday with Bryan Ross, his theory here is fun, clever, and probably right: