We got the chance to sit down with Mike and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What are your specialist tech area(s)?
Mike: Kubernetes and distributed cloud systems
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Mike: I have always loved writing and recently got into doing some freelance technical writing when Packt reached out to me about the book. From my previous time at Red Hat working on the control plane for OpenShift, I had a lot of first hand knowledge about developing Operators (especially for large user bases and enterprise customers). However, the formalities of the Operator Framework were not very much in my area of expertise. So I wanted to do the research for this book not only to better my own understanding, but to take the concepts that I did feel like an expert in (specifically, designing and maintaining Operators for users and open-source) and apply that knowledge to help explain the basics of Operators and the Operator Framework to users who were entirely new to the subject.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Mike: I researched for about a month before starting the book by reviewing general documentation and following tutorials to make sure I understood everything that would need to go in the book. I wanted to have a thorough understanding so that I could add more to these explanations than just verbatim tutorials, of which many already exist.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Mike: I switched jobs about halfway through the book and needed to arrange copyright approval from my new employer. This put a bit of a delay on the writing and review process. But the team at Packt was very understanding and accommodating with the writing schedule.
Q. What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Mike: I think Operators are a great tool for people to take more advanced control over their (and their users’) Kubernetes clusters. They present an amazing opportunity for packaging and shipping cloud-native software in an idiomatic format. I think the Operator ecosystem will continue to evolve as more developers and companies adopt Operators as a method for automating the deployment and maintenance of their products.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Mike: There are already some great books on the market about Operators. This book isn’t meant to replace others but rather add to the existing knowledge of the subject. It does this by offering new content, such as Operator design considerations and the application of different use cases, to present the Operator Framework as a full development process and walk readers through an approach to that process.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Mike: I hope that this book will help readers learn the full breadth of possibilities that Operators provide to users. It’s not meant to be strictly a technical guide on writing Operator code, but that is just one part in the process of writing an Operator. By presenting different possibilities and use cases and leaving others open-ended, this book intends to be thought-provoking in ways that readers can apply to their own Operator development.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Mike: Find projects you are interested in, or that you would use yourself, and work on those projects. It’s much easier to learn how something works if you are using it every day, whether that’s for work or fun.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Blaine:
Mike: https://mikeda.me
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Mike: The CNCF YouTube channel has lots of great content on cloud-native development. The Kubernetes/CNCF Slack channels and mailing lists are also excellent resources.
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Mike: Overall it’s a good experience.
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Mike: This was my first book, and the folks at Packt were great at helping me write it. They are good at keeping a schedule, but flexible and understanding when things need to move. Their experience in editing writing compelling chapters was very helpful.
Q. Do you belong to any Tech Community Groups?
Mike: Mainly just Kubernetes Slack channels/mailing lists and SIGs
Q. What are your favourite Tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Mike: I don’t think I really have a favorite tech journal. I tend to get my news from a bunch of different sources. The best sources are probably my colleagues, who keep me up to date on most of the interesting developments in tech.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Mike: Maintaining a good balance and keeping aware of deadlines were most important. Making a schedule of when to write and how much to write at a time helped me to organize my workload for the book.
Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Mike: Make a detailed outline of what you plan to write for each chapter/section/etc. Working from an outline is much easier than starting blank, and it helps to shape the “story” of the book you are trying to write.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
Mike: Github: @damemi
