dougireton

I think for AWS resources at least you are much better off with Terraform. Terraform supports new AWS services and features much more quickly than Ansible since many more folks are using TF to provision cloud infrastructure.

Perhaps a way forward is to talk with potential customers and find out how your software solves problems for them and allows them to focus on their core business.

For example, as a consulting company, we are happy to pay for Zoom and Slack because they both provide value that helps us focus on our business.

I have four kids ages 14, 11, and twin 7-year olds. We have never watched TV, don't own any tablets, etc. We rarely watch movies (about a movie every 2 months or so), although I just took the older two to Star Wars. So basically little to no screen time at all for our kids when they were under two.

I can only comment our our family's experience. Our kids have never said they were bored. They build things in the garage out of scrap wood. They play with Legos. My eldest son has built several working boats from scratch, including a birch bark canoe. My daughter spoke at Velocity Conf in 2014 with me on learning to program (she was 7). All of my kids love to read, draw, create, etc.

Anecdotally, I'd say no screen time has forced my kids to not be passive consumers, but to be creative in many different ways. They are also kind and empathetic, probably from so much reading.

I think Facetime with grandma is just fine, even for little kids.

The one or two times our kids came home from their grandparents and had watched 2 - 3 movies, they were crabby and demanding. So we had a gentle chat with my parents to not show them >1 movie per visit.

When I view the link, the lowest price is $29.95/mo for internet-only 10-Mbs

I do. I'm 47 with 24 years experience in tech. I don't plan to retire anytime soon. I have kids and a mortgage too.

I'm still a Sr. Engineer, not a director or Sr. Director, but I'm happy as an engineer. I've been fortunate to work in a lot of different technologies, Windows Server, Linux, Chef/Ruby, AWS, etc.

I've also invested time in mentoring junior engineers and interns. I find that my experience combined with good listening skills, and an ability to communicate with engineers, non-engineers, and senior mgmt helps me to stay relevant.

I also run a DevOps meetup group and I'm learning Golang in my spare time.

In short, I'm planning to stay in tech a long time. If anything I'm enjoying it more than ever.

My one piece of unsolicited advice is that developing networks in your city can help you move to a company which appreciates you and gives you opportunities to learn new things while working for an empathetic boss. Also, don't underestimate meaningful work. Helping to cure cancer is more emotionally rewarding than serving up ads more efficiently.

Best of luck. Hope you can stay in tech and find meaningful work.

Doug Ireton

Developers who insist that their favorite technology is the best vs. what's the best for the task at hand, what technology will the team as a whole be successful with.

Developers who don't have empathy for less experienced team members; who can't/won't mentor well.

At our small company we have weekly engineering demos where anyone can demo something they've learned which they think would be helpful for others. Could be as small as an editor plugin, a git trick, an AWS service they've been working with, etc. We encourage short, less polished demos, because some of the best demos are spur of the moment. The longest demos are 10-15 min each.