Thursday, October 20, 2016

The Information Technology Revolution

The Information Technology industry was a clear choice for me as I entered college. However, if you'd asked me what I was going to do with my life when I started high school, I had a very different idea about my career.

When I entered high school, I was dead set on becoming an aircraft pilot. I was obsessed with all things aviation. I loved to stop and watch plains as they flew past. I enjoyed flight simulations on the computer, air shows, museum exhibits, the family vacation trip to Colorado included a stop at the Air Force Academy... and that was going to be my school.

Until it wasn't, because I couldn't.

Right about the time I was getting better at doing physical fitness (so that I could pass those difficult physical tests to even get started at the Academy) an Air Force recruiter called my house looking for me. I had filled out some form indicating my interest, and he was following up. We chatted for a little while about my plans to enter the service as an officer via the Academy. It was excited and I was already hard at work on my academics and physical preparations (despite some very painful experiences with shin splits, ouch!).

Anyway, one thing let to another and we were talking about my physical preparations and I happened to mention my having been born with asthma. I was relating how working hard and running every day was showing improvement and that I didn't even seem to have asthma problems anymore.

And the he said, "I'm sorry to hear than Daniel."

What do you mean, "I'm sorry?"

"You can't be in the United States Air Force if you have asthma," he said.

"But I don't anymore, I've grown out of it," I said.

"It doesn't matter, if you've ever had asthma you're disqaulified for serving with the USAF," he said.


Well that was a major disappointment.  I didn't know what to do. I was completely lost for career direction. Everyone told me that no one really knows what they want to do in the middle of high school, but I DID know. I wanted to go to be a military man in the Air Force!

Well, it turns out that my aviation obsession ultimately let to my career in IT. It turns out, that trying to run Microsoft Flight Simulator was a fairly hefty job for the family computer. I spent lots of time on the computer, fixing the computer, and trying to make FS95 run better with higher graphics.

So here I am, a career IT guy, and I love it. It's probably all for the best too. Computers run EVERYTHING. I mean everything. It's pretty much impossible to buy a car, an appliance, a house, or even toys without some kind of computer it in. Some things are more computer than others, but chips run code. Computer chips are absolutely ubiquitous.

And so, now comes the interesting part. You see, I'm a type 'A' personality.  Not perhaps in all aspect of my life, but it's fair to say that when it comes to my career, I'm all about it. Do it right, make it better, help people... these are the things I live by. We all fall short sometimes, but these are the goals. With great goals come challenges, and challenges lead to searching for new ways to improve, learn from our mistakes and do better.

Which leads me to the point. If you obsess about doing better, you work in IT, and you want to learn, I have a serious piece of information to share with you. And buy the physical book. (I know, I love my kindle too, but people will see you reading this book, you can put it on your shelf at work and it'll be more fun to read)

There is a book you MUST read. If you're not sure if you care or not, read this book first.


The Phoenix Project



Otherwise, just buy this book. Trust me. This is the first book in my career (that's not a reference manual) that is useful for IT work. Do it now. Just click on the book. You can thank me later.

The DevOps Handbook



Seriously, why did you just go past the links for the books? There's nothing else here to read, except to buy the book(s) and get started. You don't need to do anything else right now, buy the book and get started.

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