I think about this a lot, both in IT and civil infrastructure. It looks so trivial to тАЬfixтАЭ from the outside. In fact, it is incredibly draining to do the entirely crushing work of real policy changes internally. ItтАЩs harder than drafting a blank page of how the world should be.
IтАЩm at a sort of career crisis point. In my job before, three people could contain the entire complexity of a nation-wide companyтАЩs IT infrastructure in their head.
Once you move above that mark, it becomes exponentially, far and away beyond anything I dreamed, more difficult.
And I look at candidates and know-everythingтАЩs who think itтАЩs all so easy. Or, people who think we could burn it down with no losses and start over.
God I wish I lived in that world of triviality. In moments, I find myself regretting leaving that place of self-directed autonomy.
For ten years I knew I could build something and see results that same day. Now IтАЩm adjusting to building something in my mind in one day, and it taking a year to do the due-diligence and edge cases and documentation and familiarization and roll-out.
ThatтАЩs the hard work. ItтАЩs not technical. ItтАЩs not becoming a rockstar to peers.
These people look at me and just see another self-important idiot in Security who thinks they understand the system others live. Who thinks тАЬbadтАЭ designs were made for no reason.
Who wasnтАЩt there.