_This is a long edition. What can I say? The deal here is to empty out my “notebook” at least once a week no matter how short or long. I was in Warsaw for a day this week: Prague and Brussels next, and then not too much until VMware Explore EU in November. I hope._ www.flickr.com/photos/co… Where does the obsession with SaaS/cloud revenue come from? Most tech companies (as in companies selling tech, not Facebook & co.

It’s one of my daughter’s birthday this weekend, she’s 9. The days go by! 7 InterviewsAt VMware Explore last week, Alex Williams and I did seven interviews. They were actually a presentation and then an interview. Check them out! Promo!First, I’m hosting a panel talk this week, online, with three people - we’ll be discussing the use of metrics for all that digital transformation, software development, DevOps stuff. Based on our conversations ahead of time, this will be a fun, useful talk.

First, [this](https://www.instagram.com/p/CiNOs43MWDA/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D) delightful picture: . It’s a mid-week newsletter. Why? It feels like something helpful to do, sort of therapeutic. I’ve left a few self-promotion, things I’ve made things off the past two newsletters. Lucky you they’re below! As a reminder, we’ve started the Tanzu Talk podcast back up, so you should subscribe to it in your podcast player, Spotify, whatever. I let it wilt on the vine for a good year or more (in favor of the videos and, you know, just staying sane by doing less work).

# Current Status I am on a train going between Paris and Amsterdam, stopping at Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Schipol before going to Amsterdam Central. The train is nice, nicer than a plane to be sure. This is the last of a lot of travel for me - Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, then for vacation, admittedly, Paris. “The last of” is a bit relative. Next week I go to Warsaw; the week after Prague and Brussels; and then nothing…until, hopefully, a vacation sometime in October for the kid’s break.

This week: Getting better at making podcasts by listening to them, more business travel tips, upcoming talks of mine, links, and random notes. Current StatusI’m at VMware Explore this week, I was at DevOpsDays Dallas last week. That’s right: two weeks of travel away from home. I don’t recommend that length of travel. Things start to get weird after about a week of work travel. On the other hand, it was nice to spend a weekend in Austin between the two.

# Family Trip All the family vacationing is done. With three kids, and one a two and half year old, the principal that a “vacation” is much different than a “family trip” is certainly true. On a family trip, you must take advantage of the ad hoc vacation as it presents itself. Kim and I found many such moments. Renting a house with a pool helps, having your mother along to help with the kids helps too, making sure to wake up early to have an hour of two on your own helps…but it difficult to achieve when you wake up at 6am and think “I am on vacation, so I will sleep in.

 PROMO! My company’s big conference is coming up soon, VMware Explore (the new name of VMworld). Thinking of my own plans: I HAVE A LOT GOING ON. Anyhow, it will be fun. You should check out the catalog and register to come. Here’s one of my goofy ads, er, “videos”: twitter.com/VMwareExp… Notebook “It takes a lot of work to do nothing.” This smash burger recipe seems crazy, and weird to make.

# Programming Note Never mind about that WordPress newsletter thing. I need to stick to a normal one, so here we are back here. If you are annoyed by thrashing about, I apologize. You should be able to [unsubscribe here]({{ unsubscribe_url }}). Notebook This week’s dad advice: if you’re going through a door that locks behind you, be sure to bring the key. This is a simple eggplant recipe. I think I need some better tahini and fresher olive oil, some herbs to put on-top, and then it’ll be an easy one.

Well, not that dramatic… If you enjoy this newsletter, you know I struggle to keep up with it. It’s annoying for me, and perhaps for you. So, I’ll try something new, being less perfect. You can subscribe to get notifications of posts I make to my blog, the more fragmentary version of this newsletter. I don’t want to force this on you, so you’ll need to re-subscribe by submitting your email address here.

Scroll to the bottom for my daughter’s favorite joke. Cynical Tactics for Change Management Most people don’t want to change. And why would they? What they’ve done to this point has been successful: they’re still here! Most people want stability in their day-to-day life, not the risks of trying new things all the time. So when you’re changing how you think about and build software, you need to make changing seem like the safest choice over staying the same.