This site is built using a shell script, and a few small tools, MultiMarkdown. The tool has enough features to ensure that HTML pages are made. Unix shells (bash, and friends) are effetively timeless. I could take this repo, and with it’s core scripts, and build it on a unix system from the 90’s. While I do use Nix package manager for organizing the repo, it would be more than trivial for the builder to exist without it. If nix were to disapear I wouldn’t lose much sleep over it in regards to this repository.
While I am web-developer, I’ve gotten more prudent in my later years, and now understand the cost of “adding features” and it’s contribution to bitrot and time. The more tools your stack relies on, the more power those tools have over you if they disappear. 100 Rabbits says it better than I ever could.
Your tools dicate your work. If work is a large percentage of your life, then by its transitive properties, your tools are your life.
How many hours of your life have you lost to Jira? All so that someone can keep track of their workies. If you have to deal with using a tool you don’t control, or choose; figure out a way to own that tool in some way. Post memes in Jira tickets.
A friend of mine had a bad day at work, and my advice to him, as he has some position of authority over his companies codebase, is to inject fun into his work. Mostly by working furry community things into the names of the Terraform/OpenTofu tasks. If you are forced to use tools, subvert expectations; do what you can to reclaim the work, and make it your work.
When was the last time you were dangerous?
Make slack channels for things that aren’t work related: