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Ryan Brown
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Journal

Snapshots from the 4everinbeta journey.

Essays exploring leadership lessons, DevOps experiments, and deeply personal reflections on technology, career, and life in perpetual beta.

All entries

May 04, 2018

Sometimes The Best Data Is Not Digital

This is going to be a short post (for me at least) but I have been inspired today by an inspiring woman who also happens to be my VP. Today I was fortunate enough to be picked to join a lunch and learn with a group of my peers here at Arrow Electronics. You may […]

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May 16, 2017

Demonizing DaVita

It’s all across the news here in Denver. John Oliver has taken aim at healthcare giant DaVita and their CEO Kent Thiry. And he makes an apparently strong case. However, it’s not as well informed as it may seem on the surface. I would even be willing to risk going out on a limb to […]

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Mar 01, 2016

I’m angry because I care! Why?

So, this is going to be a bit of a divergence from my normal topic. Going into a bit of my personal life. I have a son. To be completely corny, he is the light of my life. (No offense honey.) There are many things that make him special to me but the one thing […]

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Feb 17, 2016

Languages to learn in 2016

This is a blog post in response to a quora question. I started a response and it grew well beyond what I thought it would. I guess that means I have an opinion here? 😉 Question: “Which backend programming language should I learn in 2016?” Answer: The answer depends on your objectives. If you are […]

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Feb 10, 2015

The Cloud Game Is For Grown-Ups

Listening to a recent podcast on Software Engineering Radio featuring Adrian Cockroft speaking about the modern cloud-based platform, I was left bursting with thoughts. He covered a lot of topics which I hope to cover in the near future. However, one in particular hit me like a ton of bricks. He mentioned that he has seen many retailers and […]

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Jan 15, 2015

Is Reactive Programming more than just hype?

In short? Yes. Class over. Thanks for coming… No? Ok, I suppose maybe I should explain why I feel this way. In this brief article I will attempt to explain reactive programming from a high level, ivory tower, standpoint. I’m not planning on getting into implementation details. there are many, many ways to go about […]

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Dec 09, 2014

Push the boundaries! Responsibly.

Recently, I had a colleague of mine say that they had taken “I took a lower overall pay scale to come to simply because I wanted to be part of something that matters.” This was very refreshing to hear as my company is going through a phase of great attrition due to many […]

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Nov 19, 2014

On Craftsmanship: In Code and Wood

One of my favorite hobbies over the years has been woodworking. (Admittedly, not one I have done much more than dabble in to my disappointment) I have always enjoyed taking bits and pieces of raw material and working them into something both useful and beautiful. Starting from a plan. Often, in my case being an […]

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Oct 30, 2014

YADA (Yet Another DevOps Article)

Yet another article about DevOps? When will it ever end? Well, I can say from experience, we are very far from a consensus on what it means. So, it will probably not end anytime soon. Much of that has to do with the fact that it is different for every company. Each company needs to […]

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Oct 10, 2014

Why am I 4everinbeta?

4everinbeta is a nom de plume for me to express my thoughts on various subjects. Mostly technical, but not always. The title explains my philosophy of life in general. I will never be done. I’m constantly tweaking. Adding new features. Removing others that are no-longer useful. And, just like any beta product, I am chock-full […]

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