You know… I deal with complexity, redundancy, unexpected errors, hardware specs, software updates, security issues, automated exploits, and so many other things, all day. I just don’t want that at home.
I’m sure it’s nice to feel in control of your stuff, but I’d rather do something with my family, read a good book or go for a walk instead of having more of the same shite I put up with all day at work.
That's what I used to think. Then you read horror stories of people being lifetime banned by a Cloud provider with robot-only support.
Also, do you really want all your personal documents and stuff accessible on your phone to anybody who grabs it while you walk around with it unlocked on a call? Yes you might be using some security locks on folders but are you 100% sure you didn't miss any path to anything interesting?
I'm slowly working towards local storage first, partial one way syncing from phone, deliberate cloud sharing of limited stuff etc. and I'm having no regrets.
> people being lifetime banned by a Cloud provider with robot-only support
Just don't use GCP then?
Every time I've worked with Amazon (from 5 person companies to 2k+ global corps) it's been extremely easy to contact an actual human with very minimal costs.
Currently we have 3 AWS people on a Slack channel and we can ask questions from them at any time, they've even given suggestions on how to optimise costs and have recommended AGAINST using some AWS services because wouldn't fit our use-cases.
I feel like people just have wildly varying experiences with these hyperscalers.
For me, I've always had a point-person inside google I can ask, and I'm not a big customer or anything.
However AWS has always been either sales guys who very much did not give a solitary shit about me or robot support. FWIW I'm based in Scandinavia so I wonder if it's a geographic thing.
However one thing is absolutely certain: you are giving up control. After that it's just about trust. As we know about trust: it's exceedingly fragile and difficult to cultivate. One wrong move and you'll realise how powerless you were the whole time, and that's a gut-wrenching feeling.
Add me to the list of people who have no problems contacting AWS. They've always been plenty responsive and have no issues setting up calls when needed.
I've heard of larger companies that can't get anyone, and it must be that they don't know who to call or what they want. All of my AM's have been super responsive...and these are in shops that are anywhere from 200 to 3 people.
That's the opposite of my experience with Amazon, and I even worked for a company that underwent a "partnership certification" process or w/e it's called. (I.e. we had to take classes on how to use a bunch of useless AWS crap and then test out on that, just to be able to put our product on marketplace).
You are either exceptionally lucky, or maybe Amazon's support is geographically locked (into your location)... or a bunch of other reasons I can think of. Anyhow. Even if what you say was true today, this is no guarantee that it will stay true tomorrow. If Amazon finds it expedient to cut down on support, they will.
It sounds like you may be burned out. I was in a similar position until I changed fields entirely and took a long break from computer work. Eventually (over a year) my passion for technology slowly returned. It helps that I have more time with my family now and I don't have to learn proprietary cloud APIs or Kubernetes.
I wouldn’t say burned out per se - I started paying more attention to my body and mental health, and that noticeably requires me to take a step back from engulfing myself in technology.
It’s good to hear the passion returns eventually though. All the best to you.
I understand this but at the same time I don't have project managers at home (other than GF), Jiras to track, people to pry answers out of, meetings, code reviews, difficult jackasses, performance reviews, etc. I rediscover the reason I went into tech before corporate drudgery drained all of the fun. I can just build things and shape my tech to my household's needs while getting the feeling that I've built something and practiced my craft.
Don’t get me wrong I still have side projects to tinker on and that’s fun and all! But those projects aren’t something I depend on or that will cause me trouble if they don’t work, are destroyed, or hacked.
To me, hosting my data myself would mean a huge serious commitment to make it run and keep it running, and that’d take all the fun out of it. If I update a dependency of a toy project and everything stops working, I can choose to go bug hunting - or just drop it for a week. If my family photo library disappears due to a hardware failure, my home project manager would rip my head off (if I’m lucky).
It's not as bad as all that. The stuff you control at home doesn't have to support hundreds/thousands/millions of end users, it's just for you, and it doesn't need to be publicly accessible. We're talking quarterly maintenance at most.
I’m sure it’s nice to feel in control of your stuff, but I’d rather do something with my family, read a good book or go for a walk instead of having more of the same shite I put up with all day at work.