Chapter 7. Building Tools

Writing software is the reason I got into tech in the first place. I love how you can create something, with very few resources, that can touch millions of people. Software can often feel like the pure act of creation for the masses. With just a text editor and an interpreter or compiler, you can create something new. Something you make can often improve the lives of many or, more commonly, just make your own life easier. Often, as engineers, we are tool builders. Building tools for others and yourself can be incredibly rewarding, but tools are often also overlooked. Good tooling can be essential to making developers happy and keeping team speed high. Building tools can also be the momentum that helps you to keep evolving as an engineer.

Despite being birthed from a software engineering role, some days SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) can feel very far from writing software. You spend a lot of time tracking down other people's mistakes, helping...