README
As a newly minted dad since 2018, I’m pretty much completely unqualified to proffer any actual parenting advice. On the other hand, I’ve been a not-too-shabby engineer by trade since 1999, and if there is one thing engineers are good at, it is maintaining a level of hubris as they presume to bend reality to their mindset. One only hopes that some basic level of self-awareness exists to prevent complete insufferableness.
Hopefully disarming self-deprecation aside, I do think there are some tools in the engineer’s toolbox that can be brought to bear on one of the most complex challenges any single individual may ever face in their life, and one that pretty much everyone is woefully underprepared for. Engineering is nothing if not breaking down complex challenges into component parts and then solving for the whole.
So, here are a collection of thoughts on the intersection of the twain offered in the spirit of open source, with the hope that they may be useful but with no implied or express guarantee of merchantability or fitness.
Scope
As mentioned above, I feel pretty unqualified to be giving actual parenting advice. There are an infinite number of other resources that are better for that type of information.
Instead, I’m aiming at a different target, something I know a bit better, which is how infrastructure-flavored decisions in how you design your environment can provide guardrails and positive nudges, helping you apply proper parenting advice more easily or consistently.
Inclusivity
I’m a male and I go by he/him. “Dad” is an appropriate pronoun for me.
On the other hand, I explicitly deny any assumptions regarding gender around the “DevOps” descriptor. My goal is that anyone, of any gender, feels like they are included as part of my target audience.
“DevOps Dad” is mildly more mellifluous than “SRE Support Partner”.
Transparency
I may include affiliate links when linking to various products.
If I actually get any revenue from these affiliate links, I will donate half (50%) to various women-focused charities based in San Francisco, such as (but not limited to):
In any year that I actually do get revenue from this publication, I’ll provide a year-end report of the inflows and outflows.
