Mapping business decisions across the system | Ramblin' & Amblin' | Oct 23, 2026
Ramblin' & Amblin' Field Notes with Mike Hall (Staff Software Engineer)
Recorded on the move: engineering observations, systems architecture, and software craftsmanship reflections.
• Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNtb969T2-l0
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Spoken Overview:
"With the ovens that matured..."
Recorded: October 23, 2026
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
With the Open Summit Working Group, it was kind of a culmin
ation of a lot of work I was doing to build up to that. It was from landing in an attrition-starved organization,
as an IC, quickly taking on responsibility as the team lead
,
being identified as a pod leader, getting leadership in my
space to adopt a pod structure because,
while we don't necessarily want to be able to have two
totally different HR teams,
we do need to be able to operate independently and we have
two different concerns. So I took responsibility for one area and ran it my way,
and then another developer took a responsibility for
another area and then ended up looking at what I was doing
and then doing it my way. But I didn't make them.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
That was just their choice. And I mean that not in any. They were copying me. They were taking and applying and understanding and
evolving their approach and taking what worked from mine
and what made sense for them in time and worked it into
their structure and everybody was better off for it.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So it isn't copying that bothers me. It's actually made me super happy because that improved the
overall working relationship,
where they no longer saw me as just a competitor but as
somebody who clearly knows what they're doing and will work
with you. That was great. Move forward, more attrition.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
It's just a big organization. People feel what they feel. Leadership is changing. Priorities were shifting.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Some people from leadership left. And of course there's a drag that goes with that. And a bunch of people more followed that person. Not to that place but out the door.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
They followed them out the door. And I persisted. I am doing GeekFest at OMF which was... I was just recognizing that there was so much morale that I
could do something about and make it better for me too.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
It's also selfish. So for over a year or so I did the GeekFest at OMF which is
a weekly brown bag lunch. Getting people together. And during this time is when LLMs dropped so we were able
to kind of reason with that stuff together.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
A little bit later OpenTelemetry comes out. And I've already been doing this panoramic view. And I'm moving the team to start mapping out where business
decisions occur. And inventorying them inside of our system.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So that way we can identify exactly where the myriad
processes that we're responsible for begin. We're all improving the relationship with our monitoring
center and our SRE teams. And our DevOps. But you know it's a very large organization with a lot of
budget and different agendas.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So I was still learning all of this stuff at the time. I start the OpenTelemetry initiative because I had been
really pushing this panoramic view. And was building out some visualizations to help with it. And then I was like this is crazy.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
There's so much work for an in-house tool. I was already supporting an in-house tool that was helping
with correlating a couple different systems. It was like an early predecessor to like an OpenTelemetry
dashboard. It was able to let you show logs between two systems as
there was interactions.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
It's pretty cool. But it was a tool born of necessity. I didn't want to be introducing another one. So OpenTelemetry though was able to get that in front of--
By this time also I'm involved with some higher level
architectural planning for the lane that I'm responsible
for.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I've got one peer that's been hired in. And we already have a ideological difference on how to
implement ideas. And their perspective was, I have an idea for how we should
be architecting a certain portion of our system
that requires all developers to change to adopt this. And I said, well, that pattern is a lot like this other
pattern here.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I get it. Well, no, you don't really get it. Yeah, I do. And then I'll explain it again.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
They're like, yeah, exactly that. And then somehow like I would say, okay, yeah, I get it. But no, you don't get it. Which is, you know, flag.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I said, okay, well, okay. If I don't get it. If I don't get it. If I don't get it.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I've worked with enough people here to know that if I don't
get it, what do you want them to do? You know, like they're not going to get it. Because... He said, well, we're just going to expect them to do it.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And I said, okay, so like, do what? Because apparently I'm not able to explain it to you. And I said, well, we're just going to enforce it. And I wish I could say it got better from there.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
But it didn't. Ultimately that person was no longer with us. I don't know why. I mean, I've heard stories, but I don't know why.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So I kind of did take that as a win there ideologically. Because I said that whatever you want to do, we're going to
need to be able to train people on it. And if we can't communicate it up and across, how in the
world are we going to expect anybody to be able to
implement it going down the org? You know, closer towards implementation.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And, you know, that was an interesting conversation. I wish I could say better resolution on that as well. But, I mean, I was acting through GeekFest. I was acting through what became the Open Summit Tree
Project.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I was acting through participation in hackathons and
delivering actual. That was the other thing is the hackathons, like, they
weren't taken seriously at all. They were just jokes. And you could see how little cohesion there was between
leadership and their expectations of outcome.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And their understanding of the mechanisms of implementation
. And that if you have a 24-hour hackathon and your buddy's
up on the stage chit-chatting with all the judges. Because he's really charming. But none of their stuff works.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
But it's ambitious. It's ambitious. But it doesn't work. But it's ambitious.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
But it doesn't work. It's frustrating when you have attenuated your ambition for
what you can deliver and have a complete working product in
less than 24 hours. But, you know, that is what it is. So if we can't get people that are in that mode of thinking
to understand how in the world are we going to get the
organization to align on this new change, this new idea.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
But, I persisted. And I utilized the Open Symmetry Working Group as a
mechanism to bring change to an organization that was
positive and that positive doesn't win. When you're focused on the mission, when everybody else is
focused on the optics and the narrative. And I'm not being salty when I say this.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I am salty. But I'm not being salty when I say this. This is just humans that are in an uncertain market and
uncertain with their own skills, lack of confidence. Maybe they weren't meant for this field.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Maybe in another field it would be transformative. But unfortunately we're here and we're stuck with the
predicament we're in. And if you can't see a way to win through collaboration or
you don't think that ultimately that is going to be, you
know, you're cynical, you're going to have less. You can, I don't know what, I don't know what, but you're,
if you're the one that is, uh, like getting frustrated
because nobody seems to get it.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, and, uh, you realize that it takes so many words that
you eventually realize that there are no words. There's only experience and there's only a mindset. Um, and there's only the capabilities of, of, of language
and there's different goals and agendas that, again, maybe
if they were in isolation, if they hadn't ever encountered,
um, your change. Would have just continued on probably forever, who knows,
but, um, um, I was so angry.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I was so angry all the time because, um, I would go from
meeting to meeting to meeting, trying to evangelize, um,
not even evangelize. The first thing in that I could just teach people how these
frameworks work and they would understand it, um, to
realizing that folks don't even know what like monitoring
is about. Like what, what the point of it is or what, why a log file
matters, what a metric even is. And these aren't skill issues per se, they are skills to
learn, but like, I don't think they're really taught, um,
in a bootcamp.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
You're taught to go how to be productive, how to turn out
code, take a, take a, an idea and implement it. But there's operational constraints and concerns that
unless you've had to support these kinds of systems over
time,
or you've been trained, and even if you have been trained,
if you never encounter it, like, it's never an issue for
you. Or you've only ever had to be a manager, um, for people, um
, who did the work for you, or it has just simply been so
long since you've been at the code. But you're all sitting there going, if I want to get to
stay where I'm at, if I want to ensure that I keep getting
my bonus or my whatever.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So, um, the person that is introducing change is going to
be my enemy, is, is, and, and I'm going to do everything I
can to thwart them. Because, um, it's like this, um, if I support your attempt
to change, um, and I've already committed to another
narrative, let's say. Um, if I support your attempt to change, um, and I've
already committed to another narrative, let's say. And I allow for your idea to proceed.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
If I don't have absolute confidence in my idea, um, or that
I know that if my idea fails, because, listen, I've been on
the other side of fighting for my idea. Uh, so I, I, I get it, but I've won or yielded, you know,
because to me, it wasn't about like necessarily being
exactly my idea, but if it's just a good idea and I have a
place in it, but some people, they don't see that. They don't see their place in an idea. They don't see their place in an idea.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So they will be, um, in a predicament. If your idea goes forward, unhindered, and, um, it turns
out that your idea was a terrible idea, great. Um, if it, though, goes forward, and, um, it's a good idea,
even worse, turns out to be a better idea. Well, now all of that limited attention and focus from, uh,
budgets and the business are no longer associated with my
win.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
They're associated with your win. And that means, you know, um, your stock goes up and mine
goes down because it's, it's a zero sum game. Um, that it always has to be somebody wins and loses. There's, there is a path where this is discovery and we're
trying new ideas and different people are going to bring
different ideas.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And maybe sometimes it'll be a hybrid of the two or neither
. Like, but if the organizational fear is such that, um,
allowing your idea to proceed, even if I think it has a low
chance of, of winning, uh, or coming out as the, the way,
um, I must find every way to thwart it. That is in my ability, regardless of its merit, regardless
of whether or not it will actually make things better. And we are seeing this, I wish I could just say it was, Oh,
just, just isolated to one company.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
But this is really what bothered me way back with Rush Lim
baugh is that the very idea that because your idea isn't the
chosen one that you want the entire organization to fail
and, and, um, is, is a sign just a fear. And knowing that your ideas probably weren't as good as you
wanted them to be, um, or you weren't as confident in them
as you wanted them to be. So you had to work through, uh, back channels or appealing
directly to authority. It was just corruption and it's microcosm macrocosm.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I was in a place big enough where the macrocosm was
apparent, but how now that I'm back in the market, I, how
do I articulate this? When I go and I'm talking to an organization that is got
people who are less than a decade in, they've only, uh,
worked in one place. Um, and while, you know, they might make millions of
dollars in, in their, uh, in their space, they never face
those problems. Like they're not big enough or they just not enough time.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So when I interview with them, I, uh, have trouble artic
ulating all this. And again, this is called rambling and amblin'. So I know I started talking about panoramic view and all
that and, um, that process, but what I learned wasn't
necessarily, um, the, uh, panoramic view just of the code,
but that it mapped all the way out into the system where I
could see why we just couldn't fix things. And it was because incentives were all over the board.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Everybody was afraid. There was no serious engagement with any of the, uh,
outward signals that leadership thought they were putting
out about doing, uh, hackathons and, um, trying to do
little open space things because ultimately these people
did not understand what they were doing. And that when we see this function like that, you realize
that the code is, is, is, is irrelevant. Um, and, um, that, uh, no amount of being right can fix
that situation.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, and you do have to accept it. Some people just can't see what you see. And, um, it doesn't matter how accurate the map is. You can lay out that panoramic view.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I'm looking at it here. It was beautiful perspective here. You can, you can take somebody back and forth, back and
forth, but until they've walked those trails, until they've
walked those trails, all those trails down there, they're
not going to know where the mosquitoes are. They're not going to know where the mud spots are.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
They're not going to know which, uh, path is going to take
you closer to your destination, which path is going to take
you further away. Um, but then they're being asked to create a map and make,
um, make decisions based off of something they simply don't
know. And then their livelihoods, their careers, their,
everything are put on those, on those, um, pressures. And it doesn't matter if you're the person that has gone up
and down everything.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
If you can't engage with them, if you can't find a way to
bridge, bridge that gulf, that chasm, then, um, it isn't
worth very much. All right, anyway, all right, thanks, bye.