Coté

Or, “is platform engineering just another excuse to use the infinity loop SmartArt in a PowerPoint?” Preface: I usually have a whole passel of random stuff in the newsletter, it’s my waste book, by design. This past couple of weeks I’ve gotten obsessed with figuring out what the deal with platform engineering is, I mean, beyond the obvious. Here’s my write-up so far. I don’t know, it’s a draft of an idea to see if it feels right.

(I've been consolidating all the past places I've had newsletters. If you got this email in error, or don't want it, here is the [unsubscribe link]({{ unsubscribe_url }}). I apologize for the merge-madness.) Epigraph for this issue: it’s probably fine. Theme song: “Rise,” Herb Alpert. The Beautiful House As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young I like a Jan Steen house because it’s beautiful (and not another Christ, Madonna, or Greeks scene), and, because it’s intricate and so fun to look at like a Richard Scary world.

Epigraph for this edition: "Most things I worry about, never happen anyway." Or, equally well said. Art as Therapy, or, The Buddha Had No Kids Part 2. Sometimes you forget that, like, good things are out there, are possible. That you can do more than the same grind. de Botton’s whole deal is, sort of, that good art - culture and philosophy, outlook - does this for you: reminds you about smiling and pulls the corners of your mouth lips gently up.

Hot new epigraph for daily life: *There's probably a lot of things I should be doing, but I've gotten good at not doing them.* Mid-week edition Boy, in this issue you have a ramble - and then I lost energy and needed to get on with my day. I’ve written this issue up many times over the past ten years and didn’t do much work to find my previous typing. Also, with a little more searching and finding/paying for some analyst reports, you could probably get something useful.

Hot new epigraph for daily life: *I don't know man. I spend a whole lot of time not thinking about that.* Found at the Lobkowicz Palace. Current Status Two trips this week: Prague and Brussels. I did one of those too frequent business traveler things and returns home to Amsterdam for six hours between trips to visit family. It was good! Now there’s no trips until VMware Explore EU in BCN.

_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.