Leon Adato

It Takes a Village to Fix a Spreadsheet

08/10/20 Ben Zoma said: “Who is wise? He who learns from every man, as it is said: ‘From all who taught me have I gained understanding’ (Psalms 119:99)” Pirkei Avot (The Wisdom of …

SysAdmin Day 2020: Business as Usual During the “New Different”

07/31/20 I’m not going to even try to pretend SysAdmin Day arrives this year under conditions anyone would call “business as usual.” I’m going to avoid the cliched and empty platit…

Friendship Is Magic. And Harder Than It Looks.

07/17/20 Building relationships is no easy feat. It’s been my experience that it’s common for people (especially, but not exclusively, men) to connect with each other through activ…

The Harsh Realities of Working From Home

07/15/20 To the companies who’ve practiced remote work for years or are solely online, congrats! You’re probably thriving in this environment. But as IT practitioners we need to ac…

Distributed Computing – When Everyone Is Working From Home

07/13/20 We’ve officially made it past day 100 in quarantine. I hope you’ve found your groove, perfected your at-home office/workspace, learned a new language, tested six new bread…

Hunting and Gathering in the Age of COVID

07/10/20 Collecting knowledge is a large part of everyday conversations. Contributing knowledge to a conversation keeps it going and allows individuals to learn new information, de…

Career Corner: How to Promote Yourself Without Sounding Like a Jerk

05/27/20 Have you ever had a colleague who waited year after year for a promotion that never came? Or worse, have you BEEN that person? You’re not alone. Many IT professionals are …

Take Your Video Call Out of This World

05/08/20 You probably aren’t surprised to know as I write this, I’m wearing pajamas. You probably are, too. These days, nobody’s going to judge our choices when we’re just trying t…

The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: The Mostly Un-Necessary Summary

04/10/20 We’re calling this the “mostly un-necessary summary” because, if the previous 11 posts haven’t given you the information you needed, odds are you won’t find it here. Becau…

The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Additional (external) Resources

04/09/20 If you’ve been keeping up with this series (and we hope you have), you’ve heard our opinions, tips, and tricks for working from home. Now, we’ve pooled together external r…

The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Sometimes It IS About the Tech

04/08/20 We have spent a lot of the previous entries in this series providing tips and tricks for the social, communication, and work/life blending aspects of having (and being) a …

The SolarWinds Guide to Work From Home: Being Heard When You’re Not in the Room

04/07/20 Following up on Clear Communication—where we addressed the importance of (and tips to maintain) conversations and communication which happened naturally in the office—we n…