Dinesh Sukhija

I think I found my work organically shaped into the platform side of things. One thing that I find myself really enjoying is looking at different tech stacks and different capabilities and products and I think platform space gives you that leeway. I enjoy having wide variability instead of just doing one thing for months to deliver on a product.

I think that's very important, and it’s definitely been a journey for me. There's been a big debate about how technical leadership should be and I've learned the hard way how important it is to keep those skills sharp. One of my ways that I do it is using a lot of capabilities we have these days, like ChatGPT, to quickly get on top of the various concepts, by asking it to simplify abstract concepts. I’ll also use some time in my one-on-ones to pair on something with my team members or ask them “Hey, can you walk me through what you built and why you built it this way?”. I’m also always kind of quietly just watching all the PRs, staying on top of all the trends and using forums like reliability.org to catch up on what other leaders are doing in this space. I think it’s essential for platform leaders to have a strong pulse on how technology is evolving.

I think the abstraction capabilities that some of the developer tools give you in the operation space have been underrated for now. I think it's habitual because a lot of platform engineers like to do things by getting dirty, using the CLI capabilities and core capabilities, and are kind of resistant to abstraction. But I think building a layer of abstraction, be it with an IDP (Internal Developer Platform) in the space of developers or even IDPs for operations is still underrated and I think that should play a big role as companies mature.

That’s a tough life. But if I had to pick something, it would be biryani. You can’t eat too much biryani.

Definitely hitting some trails with my family, letting the kids bike while me and my partner walk behind them. Then hitting a brunch would be good, maybe coming back home while they get some screen time and I watch my own movies. And in the evening, maybe a glass of wine and a quiet dinner. That's my perfect kind of day.