[HN Gopher] Bryan Cantrill Interviewed at ACM Bytecast
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Bryan Cantrill Interviewed at ACM Bytecast
Author : todsacerdoti
Score : 52 points
Date : 2021-07-04 14:00 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (learning.acm.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (learning.acm.org)
| xrayarx wrote:
| Nice and worthwhile interview of the inventor of dtrace.
|
| Transcript
| https://learning.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/leaning-cen...
|
| Overview
|
| 0:27 Introduces guest Bryan Cantrill
|
| 1:00 - Bryan's background
|
| 9:24 - Following your own path
|
| 12:21 - The initial idea of DTrace and how it came to life
|
| 17:15 - You are your own customer
|
| 21:30 - Discussing the idea of observability
|
| 25:08 - How advanced softwares reflects the need for
| observability
|
| 27:42 - Crucial questions for new systems
|
| 31:28 - Application of machine learning
|
| 33:15 - Discussing open source
|
| 41:40 - Remote-friendly workplaces
|
| 42:58 - Mentorship and influence
|
| 46:27 - What is Bryan most excited about in the field of
| computing in the next 5 years?
| okareaman wrote:
| I've always enjoyed listening to Bryan discuss his computing
| passions. It struck me listening to this that he seems like a man
| who has never suffered hardships or trauma and had supportive
| parents. It made me sad to think about what a difference that
| would have made in my life.
| neilv wrote:
| If you're here, using a computer to type on the HN Web site,
| you already have a lot of advantages over billions of other
| living people.
|
| Find your opportunities, put yourself out there and at risk for
| things you want, and see what you can make happen.
|
| And as you do this, and encounter problems you can't solve for
| your own personal situation, try to improve them for others,
| now and in the future.
|
| Maybe that means raising kids and trying to give them more than
| you had, maybe that means helping a few random individual
| people whose problems you recognize, maybe that means fixing a
| systemic problem more directly.
| okareaman wrote:
| My sad wistful feeling comes from being over 60, so it's a
| bit too late. I did give my kids a better life and that's
| some consolence. I also have empathy for and offer help to
| people who are struggling. I doubt I would if I hadn't
| endured suffering.
| neilv wrote:
| Sounds like you're doing well. I think it's OK to
| occasionally be struck by the idea of mighthavebeens.
| Sometimes we need to be reminded not to dwell on it, count
| our blessings, see what blessings we might want to
| pursue/embrace next.
|
| FWIW, I don't know about the subject of this post, but I've
| spent a lot of time around some of the places where people
| with the most charmed upbringings congregate
| disproportionately. People who never had anything bad
| happen to them are in the minority even there, though they
| do exist. But it's pretty important in many "success" (very
| privileged) circles to project that you're also a "success"
| person, and people will spin their origin stories and
| circumstances for that. Doing so can be intentional,
| subconscious code-switching, or simply mood/context.
|
| Also FWIW, I think Brown has need-blind admissions now, and
| (like I imagine a lot of schools lately, now that there's
| more awareness), an applicant's story about how they got to
| that point matters. In Brown's case, I bet they still
| genuinely want diversity of experiences, social justice,
| etc. (Though a diverse-experiences student applying to a
| prestigious school will still have to stand out among all
| the "success" people, many of whom are professionally
| coached on how to hit the right qualitative notes for
| admission criteria and perceptions.)
| benreesman wrote:
| I'm often tempted to think that I would have accomplished more
| if my parents had like, taught me to read or whatever.
|
| But the most remarkable person I've ever worked with was born
| female in the PRC at a time when, well that was even more of a
| handicap than contemporary US-style sexism and misogyny, to put
| it mildly.
|
| This person had to be at the top of every list by sheer
| character and determination from birth on to even get to where
| my fucked up childhood started me. And has far exceeded my
| accomplishment so far.
|
| It kind of keeps it in perspective for me that as hard as I've
| worked, it's possible to work harder and smarter and achieve
| more.
| Traster wrote:
| I think about this a lot when people talk about a "growth
| mindset" - the entire concept comes from a place of privilege,
| the idea that if you swing big and miss, you'll still land on
| your feet, when in reality a lot of people are in a mindset
| where if they risk their job and lose, they're in deep
| financial trouble and have no safety net to support them.
| teddyh wrote:
| _For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these:
| "It might have been!"_
|
| -- John Greenleaf Whittier, 1856
| neom wrote:
| I understand why you might infer that. I had lunch with Brian
| once many years ago. Despite one of my objectives at
| DigitalOcean being stopping Joyent, he was very open, very
| honest, and very polite, easy going, super friendly. I'd
| caution against using the abstract as a leading indicator for
| an upbringing, I know more than one person whom come across
| similar to Brian in their background and outwardly nature, but
| have had extreme childhood trauma.
| okareaman wrote:
| Thanks for pointing this out. Overcoming trauma and suffering
| strengthen the character of some people, probably a smaller
| percentage than those that they keep down. I have achieved
| the happiness and positivity that Bryan has by overcoming
| them. My sadness is about the decades it took, but even so, I
| am grateful that I did.
| novok wrote:
| In the response to bullying, most become angry and
| defensive or submissive and fearful, some clever assholes,
| and a rare few become very nice yet assertive people and
| even a rarer few become the next superstars. The response
| to trauma is varied.
| iso8859-1 wrote:
| I haven't seen an ACM interview yet that went into childhood
| trauma. They are pretty topical. What makes you infer more
| childhood happiness from Bryan's childhood than anybody else
| from the technology sector? Because he is outspoken about tech?
| I am not sure that means he was never traumatized.
|
| I hope you get can persevere with your problems, of course.
| okareaman wrote:
| He's an Eagle Scout who became a Boy Scout troop leader for
| his boys. His mother influenced him to go into computer
| programming. He's relentlessly positive. If he's had hardship
| and trauma, he's doing a great job of hiding it.
|
| Edit: He could afford to go to Brown University, something I
| could only dream about. Just to be clear. I don't begrudge
| Bryan for any of this. Someday if society evolves, we will
| all have the nurturing Bryan had.
| akerl_ wrote:
| It's not really viable to take a few facts like this and
| extrapolate a lack of hardship or trauma.
|
| I think you've stepped pretty far outside of reasonable
| discourse about the post, and into the realm of intense
| speculation about somebody else's personal life.
|
| Maybe don't do that.
| chris_wot wrote:
| Kind of like not extrapolating that someone hates females
| if they use a gendered noun?
| [deleted]
| nicetryguy wrote:
| Well somehow you turned a technical conversation towards
| yourself and your own problems so you're probably just an
| insufferable selfish asshole.
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