I’m almost sure that the system had some sort of local replication and versioning that was enough to deal with occasional deletions, rollbacks, and single non-widespread hardware failures, so only the very catastrophic scenario of losing all servers at the same time (that for sure wouldn’t happen anytime soon) was uncovered.

Isn’t the GP describing exactly that?

Most of my awkward moments happened with family members casually cruising on my background while someone else had the word. Usually they can hear when I’m speaking and don’t enter the room.

Life becomes way lighter when you realize other people are also smart and what you’re “fixing” can very likely be:

- something so unimportant that no one felt it was worthy working on

- something that was supposed to work like that, and you simply don’t agree and want to make it your way

That said, a catalog (which Delta also can have) helps a lot to keep things tidy. For example, I can write a dataset with Spark, transform it with dbt and a query engine (such as Trino) and consume the resulting dataset with any client that supports Iceberg. If I use a catalog, all happens without having to register the dataset location in each of these components.

Edit: quoted evil-nation since it’s a debatable term usually applied to any country not politically or culturally aligned with some intelligence activity presence.

I only do automations (no dashboards at all), and try to keep them as simple as possible. Once I feel I’m reaching diminishing returns territory, I stop.

Only use HA if I need to mix different vendors (e.g. turn on the hue lights if the tuya sensor switches to on) or if the vendor app/service has a limitation that doesn’t allow me to do what I want. For instance, I have some automations for my Mitsubishi airco units cause their app sucks. Otherwise I’ll just use the default app or service.

Only configure an integration if I’m going to use it in an automation; I have a bunch of integrations detected that I don’t configure.

I decided to follow these rules a couple of years back, and since then I could address all my needs with almost 0 maintenance.

- Refine your definition of what’s “meaningful”: anything that helps you, your colleagues, helps you to learn a new thing or simply allows you to create something beautiful can be meaningful; there’s a lot of meaning in giving a meal to someone starving, even though you’re not solving any big societal issue or being applauded by many for that single act.

- Don’t take people like the OP’s first manager too personally: with time you realize they’re generally not evil or terrible human beings, they’re just in a different mission. Usually they are also as lost as we are, trying to find meaning and recognition. Just lower the importance you give to them (if you’re really incompatible with their personalities) and focus on your work. If even then it becomes toxic, then move.

- Most importantly: reshape your relationship with work. Who you are and what you do are not necessarily the same thing. I don't like the advice of "slacking and collecting your pay check" (been there, you also feel shit after a while), but I think that going a bit to that direction helps to find balance.