Re: [SAGE] Programmers as.. sysadmins..

["Kurt Buff" <kurt.buff@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 30, 2008 3:58 PM, Sean Ellis <totallygeek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Jan 30, 2008 3:24 PM, Kurt Buff <kurt.buff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Jan 30, 2008 2:18 PM, Elizabeth Zwicky <zwicky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Jan 30, 2008, at 1:48 PM, Dustin Puryear wrote:
> > > >
> > > > P.S. Yes, I know that "it depends on the person". I'm generalizing,
> > > > but I'm also saying that my generalization tends to be correct on
> > > > this point. ;)
> > >
> > > As far as I can tell, it doesn't depend on the person so much as it
> > > depends on the situation.
> > > I am capable of being a great sysadmin. Currently I am paid to
> > > program. Also, I do some
> > > sysadmin, on the side. Oh, I am so, so bad at it. (Hey, wanna come
> > > run our computers? Please?)
> > >
> > > Why am I bad it? If I have to touch a machine, I have to page in
> > > whole piles of stuff I don't
> > > normally think about. My brain is already full. And if I have to
> > > update a software package?
> > > Oh, just shoot me now.  Read a syslog? Crap, has it been doing that
> > > for long? As long as I
> > > have logs for... say who set up this log rotation anyway?  It doesn't
> > > help that the answer is
> > > never "I did!"
> > >
> > > I totally get it. I just don't have the cycles to do it. And if I
> > > make the cycles, that will use up
> > > brain cells I need for my real job, the one they're not going to hire
> > > somebody else to
> > > do shortly, the one I need to be good at.
> > >
> > > So yeah, pay me to program or pay me to administer systems. You could
> > > even pay me
> > > to administer systems and write relevant programs. But if you're
> > > paying me to program
> > > something else, I will either be a lousy sysadmin, or I will be a
> > > lousy programmer (and
> > > then you will fire me, so where's the joy in that?) or I will grow a
> > > new head. And I've
> > > never succeeded with the two heads thing.
> > >
> > >         Elizabeth
> > >         zwicky@xxxxxxxx
> > >
> > > P.S. Did I mention we have an open position for a sysadmin at $WORK?
> >
> > Heh. $GEOGRAPHICLOCATION and $RANGEOFPAY?
> >
> > Kidding aside, I believe you are quite correct. Doing two things at
> > once usually means you do both poorly. Multitasking is broken in
> > humans.
> >
> > Kurt
> >
>
> Yes, but we can task switch just fine....

I find that the overhead of task switching grows with the age of the
sysadmin, though that's relative - the absolute difference in
individual ability to task switch is quite variable - and that under
pressure, cache-thrash is a real danger.

Kurt