When I left, the search for my replacement took a long time. Much longer than I’d have preferred, and to an eventually unsatisfactory conclusion for everyone involved, I believe. I contented myself with the knowledge that my skill set was sufficiently wide in breadth and complex in nature that I was hard to replace. I used this to buoy my ego. ALthough I had sympathy for the people I was leaving, and the one I left in my stead, it felt good to be needed and wanted, and I was proud that I could fill that role like no one else we’d found.

Such is the folly of the unwise, I’m afraid.

~ Matt Simmons from, «http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com/blog/2013/02/and-when-you-gaze-long-into-an-infrastructure-the-infrastructure-will-gaze-back-into-you/»

Note to self: Hang out with Matt more and listen to what he has to say.

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There are ramifications to my job not being done correctly, and there are ramifications to your, as well. They’re probably not always (or even usually) dire, but how many times does it have to be?

~ Matt Simmons from, Bespoke, Hand Crafted Engineer

You can, and should, also follow Matt directly on Twitter @standalonesa and on his blog.

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Other people are recognizing that we work in an important intersection of knowledge and responsibility, too. I came across a presentation from this year’s Chaos Communication Congress in Germany. It was a talk by Jacob Appelbaum and Julian Assange, who were introduced by Sarah Harrison. The name of the talk was SysAdmins of the World Unite.

~ Matt Simmons from, «http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com/blog/2013/12/knowledge-workers-as-a-political-class/»

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