One of my favorite things to do around the holidays is to play the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge. There are fun technical challenges, some game-like aspects, and some talks uploaded to YouTube that I mostly skip, despite that there are clues to the challenges within them.
This year, I listened to a talk from Jack Rhysider of Darknet Diaries. His excellent podcast has become quite popular, and he talked about the reasons he started a blog: to document things he learned or wanted to refer others to.
I’ve always enjoyed documenting technical processes as I do them, primarily as a way to learn. When troubleshooting an issue, finding the solution is usually the result of someone else solving the same problem, then sharing the solution.
I’ve also worked at a few places that had very limited documentation in place, and where processes are made up as you go. That’s not ideal when it comes to consistency, though it adds a bit of fun for those of us who like to solve problems on their own.
While some smaller organizations can manage this to an extent, it’s frustrating to experience at larger ones. The lack of documentation directly contributes to dependence on “rock star” engineers. You don’t need rock stars if you have documentation!
Finding technical people who can create and document their processes is a rarity. Communicating clearly with peers and non-technical audiences is also an important way to understand how processes fit within a larger context.
So, this blog is going to be that: a place to share knowledge. Thanks for reading!