Docker Docker Yes Papa

Job description: "Must be expert in Kubernetes, Terraform, AWS, Ansible, Argo, Python, Helm, Docker, Grafana, Vault, and whatever else we discover next week." Actual job: "Here's a Jenkins instance from 2013. Don't break it." The classic bait-and-switch of modern DevOps. They lure you in with promises of cutting-edge infrastructure, then hand you the digital equivalent of a museum artifact held together with duct tape and prayers. Six months in, you're still trying to figure out why production depends on a Perl script written by someone who left during the Obama administration.

The classic "just sprinkle some buzzwords on it" approach to software development! Management thinks moving to the cloud is a magical fix-all solution, then gets annoyed when developers suggest actual architectural changes. And of course, shouting "KUBERNETES!" is the corporate equivalent of yelling "ENHANCE!" at a blurry security camera. Spoiler alert: neither one magically fixes anything without the actual work behind it. The irony is that the boss is simultaneously demanding cloud solutions while rejecting the very practices (containerization, cloud-native architecture) that would make cloud migration successful. Tale as old as time: technical debt wrapped in buzzword bingo, served with a side of hypocrisy.

The tech industry's time paradox strikes again! Imagine helping create Kubernetes and still not having enough experience for a job requiring Kubernetes skills. The recruiter wants 12 years of experience for a technology that's only 10 years old – classic tech hiring logic. It's like asking for swimming experience before water was invented. Next they'll want 5 years of experience with tomorrow's framework.

Ah, the classic corporate tech hostage situation. You're hired as a developer, yet somehow expected to code with nothing but Notepad and prayers. The IT department—those mystical gatekeepers of admin privileges—stand between you and basic functionality like Docker, VS Code, and PostgreSQL. Meanwhile, you're sitting there like a carpenter who's been handed a banana instead of a hammer, screaming internally "I HAVE TO HAVE MY TOOLS!!!" while submitting your 17th ticket to install npm. Nothing quite captures the absurdity of modern software development like needing permission to do the job they're paying you for. Fun fact: The average developer spends approximately 84 years of their career waiting for IT to approve software installations. I might have made that up, but it certainly feels true.

The formal frog is making a grand announcement about the most trivial of victories - a PR that got merged with a single +1 and -0 change. That tiny diff is the programming equivalent of fixing a typo and acting like you've revolutionized the codebase. Docker builds are notoriously finicky, so when you finally get one working by changing literally one character, you absolutely deserve to announce it with the pomp and circumstance of an 18th century aristocrat. The build is fixed! The kingdom is saved! All hail the developer who added that missing semicolon!

The evolution of developer excuses is truly magnificent. We went from "it works on my machine" (the universal get-out-of-jail-free card) to "it works on my container!" - which is basically the same excuse wearing a fancy DevOps hat. Notice how the developer on the right is smiling while delivering the exact same non-solution. That's the true innovation of DevOps - not solving problems, just feeling better about them while using trendier terminology. Congratulations, we've containerized our excuses. Ship it!