State of the Tech
A story of self-discovery, and a look back on the year in personal development along this winding career track. Something small happened today that subtly shook me into a view of how far I have come.
Today I needed a python library that digests PCAP files so that I can do intelligent things with them. Like usual, I went fishing around the internet for libraries. Like usual, because we live in a day and age where no problem is unique, I found a few viable options for use. I eventually settled on dpkt because it .pcap files along with parsing most known forms of traffic and packet layouts.
But it failed to install. So I spent five minutes debugging the library and devised a three line patch. Then I published an issue on the project page citing both the problem and solution. Having re-read the bug report, and feeling satisfied with myself for having fixed someone else's code, it dawned on me that I was suddenly in strange territory.
I mean, who the hell does this kind of thing? Aren't I supposed to just pluck fruit from the digital tree of knowledge here and reap the rewards, both good and bad? But to give back, to sew more seeds, prune the dead wood from the living, and report issues to those that can help... is that normal?
Granted, normal and I parted ways a long time ago. But this is kind of a new twist on things. For the first time, I'm seeing myself as not only a contracted engineer, and part-time FOSS developer, but as a good steward of the internet itself. Of course to myself, this isn't as crazy an association of concepts as it might seem to others.
I suppose it's not all that strange considering the ethos imparted to me by my time as a youth - one could have labeled me a kind of "outdoorsman"1 then. I really do feel connected to the same principle of leaving a place in better shape than when I found it. This idea, that an environment exists perfectly fine without you in it, and that it should continue as such when you leave, is rooted quite deep down within me. The entire internet to me, is another such environment, so surely the trails and park-benches need work here and there, right?
Beyond that, this sparked a quick look at how I viewed such things earlier and what changed in the middle. This year, I adopted many new skills on top of the old set. It's something I'm quite proud of, considering I was stagnating at my old job:
- AVR 8bit software development (C and Assembler)
- Re-learned how to solder and read basic circuit designs
- Cloudshield programming (proprietary work stuff)
- Python (Django web and console)
So somewhere in the middle, of this great confluence of paid and non-paid work, the free projects and the work-for-hire, I grew a little in ways that you can't find in a textbook. Of all the things I ever expected to accomplish in my career, this wasn't one of them; but I'm starting to see that it might be the most rewarding.
One of these days, I might just set out to see how many bugs I can pound flat in a weekend on everyone else's projects...
1.Okay, more like "Life Scout". But that's another story. And no, I never liked the hokey sing-alongs.
Today I needed a python library that digests PCAP files so that I can do intelligent things with them. Like usual, I went fishing around the internet for libraries. Like usual, because we live in a day and age where no problem is unique, I found a few viable options for use. I eventually settled on dpkt because it .pcap files along with parsing most known forms of traffic and packet layouts.
But it failed to install. So I spent five minutes debugging the library and devised a three line patch. Then I published an issue on the project page citing both the problem and solution. Having re-read the bug report, and feeling satisfied with myself for having fixed someone else's code, it dawned on me that I was suddenly in strange territory.
I mean, who the hell does this kind of thing? Aren't I supposed to just pluck fruit from the digital tree of knowledge here and reap the rewards, both good and bad? But to give back, to sew more seeds, prune the dead wood from the living, and report issues to those that can help... is that normal?
Granted, normal and I parted ways a long time ago. But this is kind of a new twist on things. For the first time, I'm seeing myself as not only a contracted engineer, and part-time FOSS developer, but as a good steward of the internet itself. Of course to myself, this isn't as crazy an association of concepts as it might seem to others.
I suppose it's not all that strange considering the ethos imparted to me by my time as a youth - one could have labeled me a kind of "outdoorsman"1 then. I really do feel connected to the same principle of leaving a place in better shape than when I found it. This idea, that an environment exists perfectly fine without you in it, and that it should continue as such when you leave, is rooted quite deep down within me. The entire internet to me, is another such environment, so surely the trails and park-benches need work here and there, right?
Beyond that, this sparked a quick look at how I viewed such things earlier and what changed in the middle. This year, I adopted many new skills on top of the old set. It's something I'm quite proud of, considering I was stagnating at my old job:
- AVR 8bit software development (C and Assembler)
- Re-learned how to solder and read basic circuit designs
- Cloudshield programming (proprietary work stuff)
- Python (Django web and console)
So somewhere in the middle, of this great confluence of paid and non-paid work, the free projects and the work-for-hire, I grew a little in ways that you can't find in a textbook. Of all the things I ever expected to accomplish in my career, this wasn't one of them; but I'm starting to see that it might be the most rewarding.
One of these days, I might just set out to see how many bugs I can pound flat in a weekend on everyone else's projects...
1.Okay, more like "Life Scout". But that's another story. And no, I never liked the hokey sing-alongs.