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On Wed, Jul 3, 2019 at 11:50 AM Josh Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I agree with everything Kyle said except that it doesn't make you better at > other things. The sysadmin skills I learned in figuring out self-hosting > have transferred to many parts of my career inside and outside libraries > and have helped me land jobs several times. This raises some interesting issues. Whether the game plan is to "roll your own" or provide development opportunities that attract bright and motivated people who move on, it's in the library's interest to help people develop skills. Doing this in a way that sets the library up for long term success is tricky. Once something works, there's a tendency to build on top of it to avoid duplicating work and everything's great -- until it isn't. At that point, there's heck to pay for whoever you left behind (guilty of this myself -- sorry about that, Terry) or yourself because you stayed long enough (%#^&^$@!!) Practically all of the tech work I've done for years is all about untangling legacy stuff, and I'm guessing the same is true for many people here. It's much harder to help things advance when you spend all your time keeping up with the past. These things always start with the best intentions, but the "future legacy" angle is huge. So long as people think about it up front, any decision they make will be the right one. kyle