adam behman

[Gergely Orosz @GergelyOrosz]

Kelsey Hightower has one of the most inspiring stories in tech: he went from a technician installing DSL modems, through self-directed study and very hard work, to one of the very few Distinguished Engineer at Google whom Satya Nadella personally persuaded to join Microsoft.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro
03:34 Kelsey’s first job at McDonald’s
05:04 His non-traditional path into tech
11:45 Landing his first tech job with an A+ certification
15:33 His entrepreneurial years
19:45 Joining Google as a data center technician
27:48 Learning automation at a Rackspace spinoff
33:26 Moving into financial services
50:00 Building a reputation through open source
53:55 From configuration management to containers
1:08:20 The rise of Kubernetes
1:25:05 Why he almost joined NASA instead of Google
1:29:20 Defining DevRel at Google
1:38:20 Demonstrating impact at Google
1:41:20 Microsoft's offer
1:55:20 Learning how to slow down
2:06:39 Advising and investing
2:15:03 A people-first view of GenAI
2:24:27 Using AI with guardrails
2:28:26 Matching AI to the task
2:36:06 Staying relevant in the AI era

Brought to you by outstanding teams building products I love:

• @AntithesisHQ: verify your system’s correctness without human review or traditional integration tests – and avoid bugs or outages. https://t.co/AKYm4cctss

• @sentry: application monitoring software considered “not bad” by millions of developers https://t.co/uoolyqTR6M

• @buildkite: CI software built to absorb whatever your coding agents throw at the build queue. OpenAI, Anthropic, Uber and others are customers: https://t.co/C05Ze9zzin

Three interesting learnings from Kelsey:

1. Side hustles and doing your own thing teach you business like no IC job can.

Before becoming a software engineer at Google, Kelsey was a manager for his comedian friend, operated a computer store, and did IT contracting. These gigs taught him logistics, planning, and about money. All this helped him be far more effective at talking with executives and acting as an executive sponsor inside Google.

2. Can you explain what your startup does without mentioning AI?

When Kelsey researches startups seeking his advice, he challenges founders to not say “AI” once. This means that they must explain the actual value their company creates. One unexpected benefit of this is that it often reveals there are easier, cheaper ways to achieve a goal than with AI.

3. It’s very rare to get an extra zero put on your compensation figure – but it happened.

Kelsey was a successful, well-paid Google engineer when Microsoft made him an offer that 10x’d his salary (!!). When Kelsey told Google he was planning to take the offer, it matched the offer, proving that his market value had massively increased. It shows that being well paid doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being paid at the correct market rate.

[NutanixPartners @NutanixPartners]

#NEXTconf Chicago, you were world-class. 🎡

Now, we’re taking that momentum to Las Vegas for .NEXT 2027. Be among the first to secure your spot with exclusive preregistration pricing: https://t.co/Rl3HnumYGA

[Nutanix Community @NutanixNation]

🔥 Nutanix fans, this one’s for you! Watch me install Prism Central on a fresh CE 2.1 cluster (AOS 6.8.1).

No more deployment headaches – clear and detailed!

Ready to try? Drop a 🔥

https://t.co/ZRPSnEhhD8

#NutanixCE #HCI #vCommunity #NutanixNTC

[Nutanix Community @NutanixNation]

From OpenClaw installs → GPU scheduling → microsegmentation best practices…

The Nutanix community has been BUSY this week 🔥

Don’t miss the smartest threads, all in one place 👇

https://t.co/3YZTJ4bvDg

#Nutanix #Kubernetes #CloudComputing #TechCommunity #vCommunity

[adam behman @adambehman]

iTWire reports on the 8th Annual Nutanix #EnterpriseCloudIndex, revealing how businesses are adopting AI faster, securing data more effectively, and updating their IT infrastructure. https://t.co/4dnARYpiz6

[adam behman @adambehman]

Harsh Vaishnav says data from the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index shows secure hybrid infrastructure will drive the most consistent partner revenue as AI scales. https://t.co/NgoLWhx9pZ

[adam behman @adambehman]

The 8th Annual Nutanix #EnterpriseCloudIndex report, featured by VS Daily, shows enterprises ramping up AI adoption while enhancing data security and modernising infrastructure. https://t.co/uh0OjcaalX

[adam behman @adambehman]

AMD and Nutanix Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance an Open and Scalable Platform for Enterprise AI https://t.co/UYDyXWTikM

[AMD @AMD]

Hello, enterprise AI. 👋 Today, we’re announcing a new strategic partnership with @Nutanix, focused on accelerating an open, full-stack AI infrastructure platform designed to power Agentic AI applications everywhere.

https://t.co/CgzitHWtE3

[Nutanix Inc. @nutanix]

Today, we reported Q2 FY26 results that were above the high end of the range for all guided metrics and announced a strategic partnership with @AMD focused on the development and marketing of an agentic AI platform: https://t.co/d7PkbEWLPe

[Nutanix Inc. @nutanix]

@IntelBusiness Lee Caswell breaking it down = instant clarity. Intel Xeon 6 + Nutanix Cloud Platform means more power, better consolidation, less complexity. 🙌

[NutanixPartners @NutanixPartners]

The new Partner Connect series from Nutanix and our distribution partners is here to empower you! Get expert-led sales, marketing, and technical insights to sharpen your strategies, deepen your technical expertise, and unlock new growth opportunities: https://t.co/cOAOBAPHJQ

[Sam Rose @samwhoo]

StackOverflow graph of questions asked per month.

Holy shit.

[adam behman @adambehman]

@nutanix This is fantastic!!!

[Nutanix Inc. @nutanix]

IT pros...they do it all! Just ask Nutanix Technology Champion Jason.

[Nutanix Community @NutanixNation]

🚀 Step into the spotlight!

Applications for the 2026 @Nutanix Technology Champions are NOW OPEN!

Bring your ideas, energy & expertise to shape the future of Distributed Hybrid Infrastructure. 🌍

Apply today 👉 https://t.co/nJhG4L95hJ

#NTC2026 #TechChampions #vCommunity

[Nutanix Community @NutanixNation]

Getting started with the Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP) - check out this 5 part series from @jonashogman

1️⃣ NKP Post 1: Preparing the setup environment

https://t.co/4mn4XNxcnj

#vcommunity #NTC #Nutanix #kubernetes

[Nutanix Inc. @nutanix]

Swift and seamless VM migration is the name of the game.

Say goodbye to migration headaches and hello to simplicity: https://t.co/19zbbxcbBI