Charting Your Own Course Through the Cloud Native Landscape
A presentation at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2022 in in Valencia, Spain by Matt Stratton
Charting your own course through the whatever what not landscape MATTY: blah blah “charting your own course through the cloud native landscape! I’m Matty Stratton!” WHITNEY: “I’m Whitney Lee!” NEXT SLIDE!
WHITNEY I rst started learning Kubernetes about two years ago. I remember talking with my dad on the phone, telling him that I was starting to learn this huge technology, and I was trying to describe to him how overwhelming it felt. fi “It feels like I am trying to learn a plate of spaghetti,” I said.
WHITNEY “Not only am I trying to memorize the shape and placement of every noodle, I’m trying to also understand why and how each noodle touches every other one” I remember that Kubernetes felt complex to the point of seeming magical… and as random and arbitrary as trying to understand a tangled plate of pasta. Where does one even start? fl Everyone has a story! Matty and I will each share ours and we ask that you re ect on your journey too!
MATTY Background is ops, blah blah. Started a Devops podcast, learned from having guests Conf organizer, meant learned from that Traveled the world as a speaker Matty had kubectl as a license plate before actually using k8s. Matt gets arrested - how do the o cers pronounce the word on the plate? They wouldn’t be able to nd me. fi ffi Had to learn it for OCP/red hat
WHITNEY - Wedding photographer—10 years — business ran me instead of other way around
Jumped at the chance to go on tour playing with Mutual Bene t
When I got back, my son told me I would like coding and tech
I went to coding bootcamp, got trained up in less than a year
At IBM I was in presales & I made Youtube videos on the side
Now at VMware Tanzu As you can see, everyone has di erent origin stories which means there isn’t one way to learn anything! fi ff For most of my adult life I was a professional photographer. I owned and ran a wedding photography business. Well, it is more accurate to say that the business ran me. By my 10th year I was BURNT OUT
In 2014, my brother’s music project Mutual Bene t gained some notoriety and he asked me play with him on tour. That was it. I wanted to go. So I spent my savings returning couples’ wedding photography deposit money, my partner at the time wasn’t supported so I broke up with them, I put all of my belongings into storage, and I went on tour! I had no address for about a year. No regrets! When I returned to real life about a year later, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. My son was studying Software Engineering in college and he told me “Mom, I really think you’d like this.” And he was right! I wrote my rst line of code in January 2019, graduated a coding bootcamp in October 2019, and started my rst job in tech as a cloud developer at IBM in November 2019. While at IBM, as a side thing, I made lightboard videos for the IBM Cloud YouTube channel. I made 7 videos in all, and altogether they have about half a million views! When I got the opportunity to make content full-time at VMware Tanzu, I jumped at the chance. Among other things, I presently have a streaming show called ϟ Enlightning where I invite an expert to come on and explain a cloud concept to me and I diagram my understanding as I learn. fi fi fi This is a screenshot of an episode called “How To Add Persistent Storage to Your Kubernetes Application” with Rick Osowski.
MATTY “The internet is vast”
MATTY Planned pattern helps It’s a cycle that keeps repeating
WHITNEY First, you want to collect resources. Find introduction resources - often with titles that start with the words “What is” This will be a sampler! QUICK SLIDE
WHITNEY This doesn’t have to be exhaustive; the idea is for you to know what are some of the most recommended/popular educational resources out there, just to get started Don’t worry about trying to learn the concept yet, just get a sense of the landscape and a sense of what the choices are
MATTY We aren’t going to dig deep - this is to evaluate what to focus on
MATTY You don’t know what you don’t know Fast slide - not deep
MATTY What concepts come up repeatedly? Storage? Networking? ff I keep seeing people say stu about “role based access control”? Maybe I should pay attention to that? Pattern recognition, prefrontal cortex!
!!!!! MATTY - read slide. !!!!!! Whitney: for me this was linux! When I was learning Kubernetes, one of the the rst resources I started with talked about how to nd what application image is running in a pod. The resource showed the command line and the instructor advised, “Just run a kubectl describe pod command and just pipe grep image” At bootcamp I learned full stack web development, javascript, nodejs, react… that sort of thing. I had no idea what “pipe” or “grep” meant - or anything to do with Linux for that matter. fi fi fi So I got a book called “The Linux Command Line” and read the rst few chapters of that before moving further forward with learning Kubernetes
MATTY “What resources resonate with you personally?”
- this may have to do with your learning style, or your experience level, or how much time you have available
WHITNEY Now we will take the resources that we have collected and skimmed, and we will narrow them down. The idea here is to identify the resource(s) that most resonate with you To learn Kubernetes, I see a lot of people on the internet recommend Kelsey Hightower’s “Kubernetes The Hard Way,” which I’m sure is an incredible resource. But when I was rst learning, that is something that was WAY above my head. I personally needed to choose resources that were geared toward super beginners. fi Even now, two years later, Kubernetes The Hard Way is just now getting to be within reach, within my zone of proximal development.
WHITNEY Okay so now we’ve collected an array of resources, skimmed through them, and chosen ones that resonate most with our own particular needs, considering our own personal knowledge level, the amount of time we have to devote, and our learning style. Now it is time to do the work of learning!
WHITNEY To learn consistently, the best strategy is to de ne bite-sized goals, achieve those reachable goals, and then repeat. fi Reach for knowledge that is in your ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ - concepts that will challenge you but are not so hard that they feel overwhelming.
You want to measure your progress to get a sense of accomplishment I personally love my Anki ashcard deck and I study my cards every morning when I wake up. I added a ‘stats’ plug-in so I have a GitHub-style graph that shows my study streak. Other popular, powerful note-taking and study tools are Notion and Obsidian. Or maybe you are not that fancy, you hand write your notes in a daily learning journal. Or you keep a blog of what you learn each day. Everyone has di erent ways of nding joy with it, and every strategy is valid. ff fi fi The goal here is to learn at a consistent pace, and to nd a sense of purpose and a feeling of success in the journey itself, not just in the nal, faraway goal. fl fi WHITNEY
MATTY Seinfeld Strategy Brad Isaac was a young comedian starting out on the comedy circuit. One night, he found himself in a club where Jerry Seinfeld was performing. He asked if he had “any tips for a young comic.” Jerry told Brad that the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. He told him to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall with a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.” You’ll notice that Seinfeld didn’t say a single thing about results.
MATTY “What is your level of technology experience?” invites and validates beginners. When Whitney rst learned about Kubernetes, she read that a node is a “worker machine” and at that time she didn’t even understand that the term ‘machine’ refers to a computer. We make sure that newcomers feel that they are not alone, and that learning can begin from anywhere! “How much time do you have to devote to learning?” acknowledges that people have children and jobs and full lives that may not provide them with the privilege of fulltime learning. Addressing this will help make Kubernetes learning more accessible to women and to people from varied socioeconomic backgrounds. fi “What is your learning style?” embraces the neurodivergent folks who may have tried and failed with more traditional learning courses. There are many resources for many styles of learning- and they’re not mutually exclusive! We will empower learners to take what works for them, even if that means just using part of a class or tool. The joy is in progress, not completion.
WHITNEY Right now ask yourself, “What is your level of technology experience?” When I started learning Kubernetes I didn’t realize that a node is the same thing as a box is the same thing as a machine is the same thing as a worker and they all just mean COMPUTER Matty started learning Kubernetes from a completely di erent place, with years of experience in DevOps ff The point is, learning can begin from anywhere!
MATTY “How much time do you have to devote to learning?” Full time bootcamp-style learning, vs. 2 hours twice a week, vs. everything in between Be realistic - when you’re getting started, you might get really excited and over-commit. Make sure it’s sustainable! It will all get you there! people have children and jobs and full lives that may not provide them with the privilege of full-time learning.
WHITNEY “What is your learning style?” You might not know how to answer this yet, but good news is, we are about to talk about this!!!
WHITNEY As we talk about di erent learning styles, we will focus on the VARK model Explain V A R K - go through the acronym ff Visual Auditory Reading/Writing Kinesthetic
WHITNEY These learning styles are not mutually exclusive, I personally think I am both a visual learner and a reading/writing learner. Matty identi es as auditory/kinesthetic Matty: “it actually worked out really well!” Another thing to note is that concepts can sink deeper when you consume them using more than one learning style at once. For example you may watch a video that engages you with visuals and audio, and then you follow up with a rst-hand, kinesthetic experience that reinforces what you just learned. fi ff fi Your learning style can also be situationally dependent. Like, you may learn di erently with work concepts than you do with your hobbies.
WHITNEY What type of learner are you? How do you know? fi Matty and I will go over each of the types of learning styles and ask you some questions to help you gure it out.
WHITNEY First, let’s talk about the visual learning style. How do you know this is you? Do you understand information better when it is presented in a visual way? for example pictures, diagrams, maps, charts, graphs Are you a doodler? Are you a listmaker? Do you see patterns in things? Are art, beauty, and aesthetics important to you? Do you pay close attention to body language?
Draw a concept while learning it! Color Code Watch lightboard videos Take your time! WHITNEY
As you’re learning a concept, draw our your understanding Assign colors to common themes in your notes. Your brain remembers color very well so use this to your advantage! Watch videos with a large graphic component - aka lightboard videos! Visual learners may need more time to process material, but then they often understand it more deeply
MATTY Is this you? Do you learn better when subject is reinforced by sound? (Matty likes reading, but audio books make him catch things better) Do you like to talk things through? (Example when we were doing the talk prep) (Rubber duck debugging) Are you great at verbally explaining things? (Do you nd yourself saying “let’s get out of slack and use “mouth words” on a zoom?”) Do you create songs to help you remember information? (If whitney feels good about it we can have her do the Kubernetes baller) ♫ I wish I was a Kubernetes baller, I wish I could install her, I wish I had a kube-api I would call her fi I wish I had an app that was fast, and don’t crash, and whose footprint is smaller ♫
Watch guest speakers at m tups or conferences Audiob ks! Podcasts! Interviews! Use your own voice - talk to yourself! MATTY Study buddies! Watch guest speakers at meetups or conferences Audiobooks! Podcasts! Interviews! - matty grounded from reading etc loves audio books though Use your own voice - talk to yourself! - moxie example ee dd join or create group discussions nd a study buddy - question and answer watch guest speakers at meetups watch videos listen to audiobooks, podcasts, interviews use your own voice to reinforce concepts oo fi Study bu ies!
WHITNEY Is your learning style reading and writing? Here are some questions to help you gure it out. fi fi Do you prefer to learn through written words? Are you drawn to writing? Do you enjoy reading articles or books? Do you keep a journal? Are you likely to look up de nitions? Do you google everything? Do you make lists? (Interestingly, this learning style does have some overlap with visual learning)
It’s not just reading - write as we ! B k clubs are fun! Join one. Reframe in your own words Use flashcards WHITNEY
oo fl Read AND Write - note-taking is a powerful tool in your belt. In one eye and out the other - Join a book club! This is a fun way to reinforce your understanding - When taking notes, don’t write word-for-word. Paraphrase the idea in your own thoughts. This helps you to think critically about the information. - Use ashcards! Give yourself opportunities to recall the information, this will help to strengthen the neuropathways that are forming in your brain.
MATTY Is this you ffi learn by experiencing or doing things Do you like to act out events, or use your hands to help promote understanding? Does it help you to draw things out? (Matty writes on whiteboards but more to just move his hands, not to make an artifact) Do you want examples, seeing a technology in action (real ones, not “dog implements class animal”) Are you good at applied activities such as painting, cooking, mechanics, sports, and woodworking? Do you have to actually practice doing something in order to learn it? Is it di cult for you to sit still for long periods of time?
(if a licable) Learning can be a game! Don’t forget your pace L k for hands-on resources/playgrounds online MATTY Write code while you’re learning (if applicable) Learning can be a game! (Devops party games!) Don’t forget your pace Look for hands-on resources/playgrounds online (or easy local, like kind, minkube, etc) pp oo nd ways to physically sense what you are studying in tech this often means coding as you learn pace while you memorize make learning into games writing/drawing as part of an activity nd hands-on resources online fi fi Write code while you’re learning
MATTY
“you h into nodes but kubectl exec into pods - this ki ed me” Unhelpful advice I received: “jUsT go cOntRibUte!” “Everyone insisted it was rea y, rea y hard, and mostly just refe ing to their inability to explain it” MATTY GWIN-uh-veer SENG-er What was your technology background when you started learning kubernetes? I did 6months of bootcamp using Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, HTML/CSS and React. Also basic git. I learned Kubernetes as part of my internship. What is the advice you got when learning that was NOT helpful? “you should know math” “jUsT go cOntRibUte” What was the hardest thing about learning k8s when you rst tackled it? ll ll rr ll fi ss ff
- The reliance on other technology models to explain core concepts. I didn’t know that a “node” was basically just “a computer, but the server kind, not the baby computer kind AKA containers” - The di erence between a CONTAINER and a container IMAGE - you ssh into nodes but kubectl exec into pods - this killed me - The inability of most SIGs to actually onboard a junior (as a contributor, not a user)
- Everyone insisting it was really, really hard, and mostly just referring to their inability to explain it
Unhelpful advice I received: “Oh, this is always hard to learn” Hardest thing about learning K8s: “Networking. Frankly, I’m sti pre y convinced that networking is magic” “No one is an expert in every one of the many moving pieces that make up Kubernetes” WHITNEY Like me, Kat is a Developer Advocate who comes from a web developer background.
The unhelpful advice that Kat got when she was rst learning is “Oh this is always hard to learn.” This well-intentioned piece of advice feels like a lack of consideration for learners. Instead, Kat says, it is important that new learners know that NO ONE is an expert in every aspect of Kubernetes. This is something that I wish I knew when I was rst starting out. Most folks employed in the eld likely know the fundamental concepts of the project but only have deep knowledge in a couple or few areas. - We also asked Kat, “What was the hardest thing about learning Kubernetes when you rst tackled it?” Her reply? “Networking. Frankly, I’m still pretty convinced that networking is magic” fi ll fi fi fi tt Kat was strictly a web developer when she started learning kubernetes. Her only experience was with front- and back-end web development in vanilla JavaScript, nodejs, python, or PHP.
- We asked Kat “what is the advice you got when learning that was NOT helpful?” “Oh this is always hard to learn.” At rst it was ne, but as I began to understand certain aspects of kubernetes, this well-intentioned piece of advice began to feel more like a lack of consideration for learners. We should be putting more e ort into making these things easier to learn, not just leaving them indecipherable. - What was the hardest thing about learning k8s when you rst tackled it? ff fi fi What advice (one or two sentences or just a phrase) would you have for someone learning kubernetes that has no background on it? (Read slide) fi
WHITNEY Matty and I also tweeted, asking the community how they rst learned Kubernetes. One of our responses came from Lena Hall who said: “I read a big percentage of Kubernetes documentation in 2015 in the last row of a sparsely populated movie theater session. It was fun.” fi Wow this tweet leaves me with more questions than answers. What there a movie playing at the time? Was the movie that boring?
MATTY I still think it’s a bunch of smoke, mirrors, and a man behind the curtain. I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU, OK! Also, I still don’t know it. Send help.
MATTY “What the hell, Tim?!” This is a movie quote from the wizard of oz, so we’ll give you a bye on this one Tim :)
MATTY In three acts: @kelseyhightower presentations. http://Slack.k8s.io #kubernetes-users answering questions and using questions I didn’t know the answers to, to go learn more. Working on tectonic at coreos ff Sharing with others is always the most e ective way to learn a thing.
MATTY Everyone was where you are at They got to where they are You will get to where they are Then you can help the others!
The cloud native landscape is notoriously vast, and there is no hope of one human ever understanding every piece of it. Perhaps you should just quit now! Or instead, join Matty and Whitney on a journey with three fictional learners who are all trying to level up their Kubernetes knowledge, but with different backgrounds, goals, and learning styles. They will share resources and learning strategies that are beneficial to each. Anecdotal stories about how some real-life, well-known Kubernetes community members got their start will be sprinkled in along the way! The goal is not to give a comprehensive view of the Kubernetes learning landscape but instead to leave you feeling empowered to define your own personal learning strategies and goals, and then to seek out the resources that will best help you!
Video
Resources
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
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Obsidian
Note taking app
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Notion
Notes/information collection/organization app/website
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Anki
Flash card website/OSS project
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Ϟ Enlightning “How Do You Structure Learning For Technical Concepts?”
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4 Types of Learning Styles: How to Accommodate a Diverse Group of Students
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The VARK Questionnaire
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Overview of VARK Learning Styles
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4 Types of Learning Styles: Explaining the VARK Model
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Twitter thread on advice from community
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The Seinfeld Strategy
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Ϟ Enlightning
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Mutual Benefit
The band Whitney toured with
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Zone of Proximal Development
Buzz and feedback
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
