Open Source

CodeMash 2025 Talk: DevOps is a Foreign Language (or Why There Are No Junior SREs)
DevOps has a notoriously steep learning curve. Getting started in the field can feel like being dropped in a foreign country without the ability to understand *anything* about the language.
A language is more than just the syntax and semantic rules of the words themselves. It also encompasses the shared culture of the speakers. With the proliferation of programming languages as well as the deeply held cultural beliefs of the community, it's easy to see that learning DevOps is like trying to learn a foreign language.
I will review five foundational hypotheses from the field of Second Language Acquisition and relate these hypotheses back to the world of DevOps. DevOps practitioners, trainers, tool builders, and learners should all come away with useful insights to apply to their practice.