Mike Hall on Shift: When the Ground Moves Beneath You | Field Notes
Reflections in front of Shift Co-working in Crystal Lake, Illinois on corporate dissolution, the diesel mechanic union buyout parallel, technical identity, software craftsmanship, remote work isolation, and reclaiming agency amidst AI disruption.
The Guest
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
Good morning, uh, wrapping up yesterday's video, uh, that I posted, uh, didn't really get to get to the point, it was a little bit interrupted at the end, but, uh, in a way, that 's, uh, kind of given me an opportunity here to really think about what the point I was getting at, uh, with the story of my father's union, the buyout, failing, and, and, and the entire job. Uh, company, just, poof, disappearing, um, overnight, and, uh, and it's really, what, what can you carry forward
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
when the, when the, when you're playing the game, and the rules change out from underneath you, and you're, and you're, and you're, and the, and the ground shifts out from underneath you, what do, what do you do there? Uh, we're gonna wait a moment for the train. I think I'm gonna, uh, just give that, uh, a second, Metro, Union Pacific Northwest Line, coming here, Crystal Lake, but, uh, the reason I'm standing here, in particular, to finish up the video, is, this, uh, is where the Crystal
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
Lake Food Bank is, Food Pantry, uh, excellent organization. Um, my family is, is a, uh, volunteer there, my, uh, my daughter, she volunteers here, and, and I'm incredibly proud of her, because that was all her choice, and she is, uh, completely owned that independently, and to herself, for a long time, so, very proud of her. And it's also poignant, that here, at Schiff, it used to be called, it used to be a place called Schiff Coworking, and this was during that period, at the, uh, I
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
don't know, when , I, like, 2015 or so, when, when it, it felt like the, um, there was a shift change, and, and things, and, uh, uh, you know, there was, there was, there was kind of a, people moving back out to the suburbs, and, and kind of a, disconnecting the community, but, that's, that's for another conversation, but, it was kind of a period, when there was a rise of the co-working space, and, uh, even out by where I'm, I'm living, there was a few optimistic
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
people, and I was connected with the, uh, tech community out here, uh, a little bit more, I was a little bit more tapped in, I should say, um, um, and, uh, there was this co-working space, opening up here, and I would, I would come up, and I would, uh, run space, and, and there was days where they were just figuring things out, I mean, I was in, what was clearly just a converted, 1980s, or 1990s era office, um, you know, but I did, I didn't care,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
it was, gave the charm, and it was, and it was inexpensive, um, but it also gave me a place to be that wasn't necessarily working remote, from home, because there is, you know, ups and downs to that too, but I just wanted to say is that the point, uh, I was trying to get at was, what do you do when the ground shifts, when when the, when the rules change, and, and the market, you can see it slipping, like, when I saw, you know, like, with
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
COVID, that was just the nail in the coffin, I just, I remember coming out to, uh, shift, I was still working at SK, and, um, it was, I just needed to get out of the house, and, um, I walked out here, from my home, which is, it's not terribly far from here, it's walkable, I just did it, uh, before this video, but, um, yeah, it walked out here, it was like, one of those minus 20 days, and, uh, I, I realized about halfway that I made
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
a huge mistake doing that, but I powered through, and I commit, so I, I went in, because they were open, so, I'm gonna give business, and I'm gonna get off my butt, and I'm gonna get out of the house, and, and, and it was great, I, I spent the day in there, and it was, getting to see that there were a few other businesses, running space, that, uh, that, uh, you know, they were employing local people, as, uh, I'd say the concierge, taking care of the
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
place, during the day, but, um, the, uh, driving by here, getting used to doing this video stuff, but, um, the, uh, the point is, is that, uh, one day, that, it just wasn't, the market wasn't viable for them to stay in business anymore, um, and then you didn't hear anybody talking about co-working spaces, because you really didn't hear anybody talking at all, um, I think a few people gave a good go at it, but, the market just couldn't support it, and there was a, there was
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
a, a change, and that's where we saw the user groups, kind of, breaking up, and, uh, and us, not so much in Chicago, but, um, not, not so much meeting, um, in Chicago, but, again, it's, life is just full of digressions, uh, the, the, um, the point with my father's story was he carried his identity that was tied to trucking, that was tied to mechanic, being a diesel mechanic, between, between being the tow driver, he didn't have any ambiguity in, in what his domain was. He
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
loved that space, and he mastered it, he knew it inside and out, he knew that business. not enough, and, as you know me, not in the political sense, uh, well enough connected to really move, he was, he was too, a little too prone to giving people a little too much trust, and then, uh, getting burned, and then, kind of, uh, retreating to his, his truck, and going on the road, but, um, as people are saying, AI is, is the end of, of software engineering, it's like,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
you know, you know, I don't, I don't know, uh, the, uh, cloud came, and it was free at first, and everybody bought into Heroku, and, um, and then, you know, we saw boot camps, and the rise of STEM, and everybody telling everybody to get into technology, and become a programmer, everybody's got to learn how to code, um, you know, how much of that was a dilution of, of, of, of, I don't know, uh, but anyway, the, uh, point is that when you've invested so much, however
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
you've invested in it, whenever you've invested so much into your industry, and what you do in there, yeah, so I'm getting used to recording and being on my own, well, I'm gonna publish this out for hopefully somebody to see, I don't know, maybe not, doesn't matter, it's okay, but if you're watching this, I hope it, so it's interesting, while you take a walk with me, and I appreciate it, but, that, that we, I don't want to talk about portable skills, that's, because it's too, um, sterile,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
that's too, when I actually, I'm gonna walk back, the, um, I don't want to use too clinical a term, but, uh, he, he knew, what to do, in, in a variety of situations in that domain, and he knew he can operate confidently in there, so he leaned into it, and, uh, that was a clearer mapping, because, you know, he was working on trucks, and then he became an owner operator, whereas, you know, software engineer, what we do, feels kind of invisible at times, and it isn't
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
something that you could easily quantify, especially because you can't just point at it, and say, look, it goes brum, brum, grind, grind, um, you know, you can't necessarily show the truckload, to impress somebody, really, of, of the significance, and, and the amount of skill that it took to do that thing, and, and the amount of focus, and, um, and thought, and effort, uh, and collaboration, and effort through collaboration, uh, all these things that are, you know, I don't believe it's EGI yet, it's, it, it can
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
do stuff, and I've seen it do stuff, I've built things, and I'll talk more about that, in, uh, my own way here, but, uh, it's, it's not going to replace, taste, it's not going to, taste boring from experience, from having tasted a lot of different, here but uh it's it's not going to replace taste it's not gonna taste born from experience from having tasted a lot of different uh production failures having tasted a lot of of challenging problems where you're having to take and figure out
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
a way to uh you know take these crazy words uh that you're drawing on a board that are going to be on some computer somewhere um and somehow they're uh they're um a lot of money is appearing in a bank account you know and and stuff is appearing in the database um you know and uh it but it feels unreal sometimes um and i think it feels even more unreal for people who are abstracted from uh building the systems uh you know they participate in their
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
own way but uh they're abstracted away from those details and uh so yeah we've got predicament here and it is what what was the uh understanding how a dock operates and and the fundamentals of uh diesel mechanics and uh but not not from a uh textbook sense but from my hands-on i 've done a hundred oil changes i've uh i've i've i've resealed gaskets i've reboard cylinders what are those things do we carry forward because there's there's one thing to build an app and there 's
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
another to put into production and um you know i also don't buy the uh anti-vibe coding thing entirely either because uh we talk about the quality of code i've worked in enterprise long enough i've worked in enough startups to know that uh just because they're making a lot of money doesn't mean that code it's good it's it's terrible sometimes and i don't mean that you know bad or stupid i mean just i've written terrible code i mean i've because you're under pressure you you have limited
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
resources you have insufficient you know time as a resource um you're tired um you got kids you got illnesses you got all these things and you're trying to solve a problem under uh limited resources and that's what a lot of systems look like when you actually open them up so i don't know yeah you know code quality has really been uh a non-exist ent thing in some serious systems i've worked in and um again you know like i'm to the point where there was an article
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
one time about plenty of fish the ceo of plenty of fish was bragging about how bad the code quality was because nobody could ever reverse engineer it or some nonsense like that and how did i find out about this article i'll tell you how i found out about this article it's the guy i was working for uh non-technical uh but the owner of the company founder i respect um but you know he hears this and he's a rational person he found it in the legitimate source
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
and it was an article i respected whatever enough person as far as he was aware i'm not attributing any malice or stupidity or i think this is any more than somebody you know me recommending the wrong he asked me a question you know i'm i'm saying that he wasn 't uh demanding this but he tried to use it as kind of a little bit an argument when i was talking about code quality way back in the day you know we're gonna have to deal with these
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
systems that are out there that are making money and the businesses are gonna need to be able to move forward capitalism still needs to happen commerce still needs to happen hospitals all those things still need to happen will other services be disrupted by that i don't know but i do know that they're gonna need people to keep those services running it's not quite working out the way they wanted to but for those of us who remain i don't believe it uh changes there i mean it
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
doesn 't benefit us to to deny the game has changed and it's going to be a different relationship with these systems that's going to level off in time as the token um uh yeah the token trough is is open wide open while they figure out what they want to do um use this time um see what see what's possible i mean i'm not uh for the uh i don't i don't believe the ai should be used to replicate a human form um not to get too
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
butlerian on this one but uh i really don't think it's right and uh to uh to reform to reproduce a human likeness but then again you know where does cgi and all that come in i i don't have the answer i'm not i just don't feel comfortable with it being automated uh through a um um a marionette that wants to give you the appearance of this could be a real human um because especially that the information that that these uh these image systems was trained off
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
of i disagree with the uh methods of it i don't know all of it but uh whatever moral standard is i'll just i'll just leave it there but um we do as programmers really if we're going to move forward in this space the businesses are being told they need to do this okay they are um shareholders and um uh that have a lot of money invested and they need to see a result and um i'm not trying to be somebody's gonna do it kind of person
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
but it lands on your in in your on your table first lands in your table first and um you know you can take a uh an ethical stand there and say no i'm not going to do this at all and that's your choice and you have uh every every right to do that um the uh i've i've i've taken similar stands on projects myself and uh i've had to pay the consequences for that at the time but uh you know i also know there was other
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
market forces at play too and nothing is a simple equation but um these tools really do take and do surprising things and you can build stuff with them i built out my own i took see like here's the thing and this is this is this is why it's about i i know there's something to this now is that i was able to from the time i leveraged the ai tools i was uh already had a uh a shell repository that was well over a decade old
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
that i had um curated just clumsily usually with a with uh with uh with a you know blunt force uh approach but um it was a foundation that the ai was able to work off of of the headed direction and when when you put these tools on top of these ai tools on top of something that has that much of a rich context for to be able to pull off and and and and direct whatever probabilistic calculations happen inside of the magic of the machine i
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
know it's not magic but you know what i mean um the uh the numbers work out pretty well and you can do stuff and and i use it i use the tools i i like i i sit down and i say hey i want my tool to do this or upgrade that or and hey do the linting tool do a uh you know all kinds of i 'm just i'm just spitballing here it's it's not, it's not that big, but, it is the intent, though, I
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
just give it the intent to operate from, and, again, using a couple different subscriptions, uh, you have been, you know, Codex, uh, you know, so, OpenAI, um, um, Claude, and, and Gemini, uh, really, but, uh, uh, I, I, I don't use Grok, um, but, um, I, I, I quit, I quit Twitter back when he first announced it, Yeah, so, um, but, you know, but, then again, we are dealing with, uh, all these players work together, what's the big stand there, it's just me being stubborn on
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
this one point, um, that's just my little personal thing, it's not a big, um, moral call to action there, but, uh, the, uh , The point is, is that the rules have changed, that it's unlike, it's not quite the same as, uh, I mean, for some people there have been, for many people, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in, in this country right now, have experienced their CW transport, total collapse of trust, And, and, and everything that they had invested, and, and, and, the, now they're
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
left with what feels like nothing, but, in these, in, in this moment, though, We have to take a step back and, and, and, and really think about what we are, um, not, not what we are as a, uh, human being, I love music, I love my kids, I love my family, you know, all that, I'm talking about just, I'm talking about just, the thing that when we put our minds to it, in support of those other things that we love, you know, the bills have to
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
be paid, and, uh, in order, you know, so that way they can go to a nice school, and you can live in a beautiful town like Crystal Lake, um, Um, is that, uh, is we face kind of a flood in the market of, of competitors, these are people who are just like us, and, and they've invested time and effort in these skills, and we have something in common. Um, and what is it that we share, uh, common values on, and , and where do we, we
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
don't, I'm not pushing anybody out to do anything, I'm not saying I'm doing it either, I'm just, uh, saying that's, uh, we can inside ourselves look, and this is what I'm doing, and saying, you know, what do I value? I could go be a truck driver, I could go back to truck driver, and I would still be who I was, because I had built a set of skills, just like a, a woods person, A wood, a carpenter, or a woodcrafter, or a, or a machinist ,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
um, it's just that my machine, my lathe is invisible, um, and it feels worthless sometimes for that, we don't give ourselves a credit for that, and, um, you know, if you, if you're one of those, and, you know, You know, I could, I could say I was too, I am too, um, I 've been through my little CW transport moment, as well, with, uh, reductions in forces, and things like that, and we just don't have it in the budgets, it's, you know, whatever. Um, after you've
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
worked on something for a long time, and you've, you've laid down and dreamt about it, you know, while you're, you know, you don't put it down, uh, right when you, uh, walk away, it doesn't work like that. Um, so, so we were carrying all these old systems in our head, just like my dad carried CW transport in his head, and it, and it made him bitter and angry, and he was always thinking about, um, how he got let down. He was always angry about how, uh,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
how he felt failed by the system, because this happened, and all kinds of other unpleasantness, but, um, that doesn't, uh, help the story at this point. Um, the, um, the, um, the point is, is that it's, uh, for those of us who are facing a question mark on, on the future, because of, uh, AI, whether you're a more junior developer, just wondering whether this, uh, $30,000 investment you just made in a, uh, in a boot camp, uh, two or three years ago, uh, is ever gonna
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
pay off, kind of like, uh, in a weird little student, I don't, not little, please don't, uh, I meant to say a weird student loan situation, I, I, I, I don 't know, um, uh, but it would feel like that to me, um, I think, um, and, uh, yeah, and, uh, those of us who've been doing this for a very long time, we're now all of a sudden realizing, these tools are very powerful, and you can do a lot with them, um, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
hmm, hmm, what do I do now, I 'm being demanded to put in a, uh, audio transcription service, uh, whatever, um, cool stuff, they're, they're, they're coming up with, but it feels like that they're just , um, and spaghetti at the wall, you know what I mean, you know, and, uh, and, uh, that, there's a, I felt like, for me, a denial that we're all facing this together, this is all hitting us at the same time, and, uh, we're all, we've got to just kind of
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
be a little bit more humble, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and I don't mean us who do understand these things because we've been down the road a ways, but, um, on this particular topic, but, um, the people that , the narrative depends on them appearing to know that they know, and then it causes this kind of delusional state where we can't just say, I don't know, this is new, um, and then we all figure out the problem together, uh, and it's an incentives problem,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
but again, I digress, because this is my channel, I can do whatever I want, because this is called rambling and ambling, um, I gotta just do another video, so, the, uh, point that I'm getting at here is, um, that, that, for those of us who've experienced body blow after body blow in the market, and those of us who are coming in and just seeing, like, what do you mean our industry's dead, um, it's changing, yes, and that's scary, 100%, um, what's it gonna look like, we
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
don't know, um, it's, uh, but, what we can do, is we can, you know, look at these tools and find and experiment with them, and come to understand what we're facing, and then we'll know what the size of the whale is, you know, we'll know whether or not we're dealing with, uh, you know, you know, Moby Dick or a, uh, little floaty, I don't know, I don't know, when the harpooner doesn't pop, I don't know, or just get angry, I don't know, we'll find out, but,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
do, like, do spend a little bit of time familiarizing yourself with some of these augmented, uh, LLM assist, code assistance, and, um, do take this seriously, because it is a big change, the game has changed, we've had entire sectors of our, of our, uh, workforce, flood painfully back into the market, facing the same breach of, uh, trust, and, and the pain that comes with that, and then, um, understand that, you know, we can't really see each other, usually now, we're all remote, um, that there's, a
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
resurgence in communities, like Chicago Ruby, and there's a few others that, I think there was a, a lecture one, and there's a few other communities, but there 's places where, uh, these conversations happen. We've got to find a way back to those, so we don't fall into a cycle of distrust, and we don't hide away from people, like I do, I do, um, I'm notorious for it, um, haha , but, uh, It's just to find a way to connect, to communicate, not, if for nothing else,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
if for nothing else, oops, I got a, there 's a kid's school there, I don't really want to be, there's a, where I walk by is a, old school, I mean, not, not old school, but a, uh, what is it called? Pathways school, Montessori, Montessori school, I'm not going to be, I'm going to keep that off of the, uh, recording here, but, um, the, uh, there's no kids, it's early in the morning, but we're, Just, I just, myself, you know, got to find a way not
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
to, uh, not to become bitter while things work out. There are incentives that play in the market, and that's, that's, really, um, I want to, I want to detach from the cause. Yeah, there's bad things happening. Stop, full stop. I'm right here, and, what do I, what do I, I assess myself, what do I have, and, um, um, what can I carry forward with? Uh, do I, do I still want to, uh, pursue this, this career? Does this mean that I, my, my, my, my, my,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
my, did I waste my time? No. No. Me did not. Just, you are where you're at. We're, you know, I, I'm as much talking to myself here as anything, because I am truly just talking to myself here. And I'm looking around as I'm going, so sometimes, you know , I'm, I'm telling on myself a bit here, these videos, too. Um, because I'm, I'm, I can only tell my story about my own anxiety. You know, I look at people as well. I see people that were contemporary
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
to me, junior contemporary to me, and now they're, like, in leadership positions. And, you know, what was I doing? You know, like, not, not being angry, but actually understanding what I valued in that time that made me not make the choices that would have put me in that role. And that I did choose to be here. You know, the, the situation, what it was, hey, listen, you get a choice of, of two not great options. You still make a choice, you know, as, as, as the,
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
as Rush once said, uh, the good one. Um, it was Tom Sawyer. But, um, and if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Um, one way or the other. All of this is related. I'm sorry. You know, like, I know this feels like I'm going in a big, wide circle, but again, why not? Um, I'm not on an interview. I don't have to make this concise. Um, the, uh, you made a choice. I've made a choice. And, and the, and it was
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
with the choices that we had. And sometimes one choice leads to a better choice, but we 'll never know. I, uh, I know this sounds like I'm just kind of rambling, but I, I take this back to Eukasic now. Okay. So. All of these things are related. Um. Um, my father, me working for him, being so frustrated about it because of a couple of personal setbacks myself and questions about my own intelligence. And, uh, why when I became a software developer, I never wanted to be
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
anything else. Um, because it was something that I, from a young age was told was impossible and I would never be. Um, and I'm just that kind of stubborn where, man, you tell me I can't do something. I will be so mad. I will get so mad. Oh my God. Um, but I, it was, it was because I had this identity. I had this identity that I'm, I'm playing a game and it's a software developer game and I've been playing it since I was a little
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
kid. Um, was never out there doing, um, Mozart stuff, but I was at home being my little Solieri, whatever, trying to make a funny Amadeus reference here. But, uh, being frustrated why I can't be as good as, as the other, uh, kid. I got Amadeus. I mean, the, the movie, I know the book and blah, blah, blah, whatever. It's different. I'm a kid of that age, so I, I saw Amadeus and it was dope. Uh, we didn't say dope at the time. We also wore a
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
yellow onion tied to our belt because it was the fashion of the moment or something like that. But, um, the, uh, the thing we have right now is what do we value and what, and that incentivizes us. And our incentives drive our decisions. And that's ultimately what all of this boils down to is I don't want this moment where there's so much anxiety and pain in the industry of people whose identity I share these key values with. And I respect the work that they do. And
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I know what it takes to support production. And then, and I come from a lineage where supporting a production line was the identity that drove that person to excellence. And then when everything fell off underneath them, what did they come back to? Some people go and they become truck drivers. And that's just what you do. But you never not have supported production in a multi-b illion dollar system. Uh, you've never not seen that first user tran, uh, uh, uh, transition something, do a save, touch the
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
database, that moment of contact. When you've had that, that is a, an experience that is unique. And it is, it, it, it puts in you a certain awareness of certain key things. And you make decisions now because those becomes important to you. And you start to make decisions through that lens of, of having seen that first interaction, of having paired next to somebody and said rails new. And it goes to production in a name that you would recognize immediately if I told you, but it's not
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
a secret. I'm just being mysterious for the sake that's my channel and it's my story so you start to make decisions through those lenses and that's I like to think that there's incentives or kind of like what that um famous saying of the purpose of a Stafford beer I don't Stafford beer I think the purpose of a system is what it does and what does that what does that mean for a software developer um because I I don't want to say the purpose of a person
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
is what they do but it is because we're part of a system systems are made of people so as we're facing that what does this mean AI is software developer software engineering is dead you know no longer we don't need computers anymore okay cool story bro uh cool story bro okay yeah yeah sure yeah yeah okay you go into that COBOL system that has uh fucking no um uh open source modules and it's based off of uh of a system from 1970 blah and uh you
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
feed in all of those modules and have it do all the uh internal yeah like you can't get the kids gtfo if ibm hasn't done it then they're they're uh you're not either um there's a limit to this stuff and they're gonna need people who know how to reason with systems and that's what matters and that we know how to reason with the transition of technologies we can't be the kind of people that completely just reject a new thing just because we don't like it and
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I don't mean that and that we adopt it and we put it into production I mean that we have to reason with it we have to understand what we're facing and then we have to learn about it because otherwise we're not going to understand the mechanics the stuff that happened in the union the stuff that happened behind the scenes the stuff that happened in the backroom conversations of a big organization when they made a decision to shut down an entire company because they couldn't come to
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
an agreement they couldn't come to an agreement that's the kind of situation we're in but we have skills and we can choose what to do with them we have to I think decouple our identity from our employment and find a way to come back to communities find a way to have maybe more local conferences find a way to get maybe maybe turn on your cameras if you're remote maybe show show your face to each other so that way we can we can at least virtually look
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
out of the eye you know you know what I mean and remember that no matter what happens you're gonna need somebody to reason with this stuff but whatever they decide you always have what you did and you always have the skills that you built from that but only you can decide which of those drive your decisions because I mean that's it let it let it let it just guide you and that's what I'm trying to do right now too maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong I
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
don't know we'll see but uh I'm tired of talking if you're still listening good for you this is what 43 minutes of me yammering what was supposed to be a quick little video but uh anywho I'm gonna be doing these videos for you tastic I'm gonna be building up the courage to sit down and start re-watching I've already set up the environment and uh it's really just a matter of of execution at this point and commitment because I know once I started it's kind of what
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
I'm doing this here for as well is once I started I gotta I gotta keep it going but um I'll be going through how not just what was happening in that moment um of history from the perspective of of me sitting down with people and and talking a little bit about what it was like to do those interviews and what what those people were seeing around them um and how I approached them and and all of that um um as best I can remember but also
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
through there how I used AI tools to recover and rebuild that archive and that's for whatever people say about you can do can or cannot do stuff with AI I'm like yeah yeah yeah well this is what I what I saw and and and it's in my repo it's you know I'm on GitHub just like everybody else I had sushi with Tom Preston Warner and a bunch of guys from Optiva once but I'm out here in a parking lot that in 2015 I taught myself how
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
to skateboard back at again around that era and uh what happened around that era but um I'm gonna go back and re-watch these videos and and weigh that against not against but the fullness of time as much as I can remember because I think I think we're at a point now where again we're seeing engineers I don't know how many but I know there's a lot of you a lot of us that have been struggling with with uh loss and then a question of uh what
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
is our professional identity and how much is it mapped to our own personal identity um I've been doing this 26 years plus not even counting the stuff I did prior to 2000 in 1999 and younger but um I'm not gonna say it's gonna be okay but it will be so okay thank you all right bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye
Mike Hall
Software Craftsmanship Practitioner, UGtastic Creator
▶ Speaking
bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye