Behind designing Kubernetes' APIs | Brian Grant (Google)

Software Misadventures

As the original architect and API design lead of Kubernetes, Brian joins the show to chat about why "APIs are forever", the keys to evangelizing impactful projects, and being an Uber Tech at Google, and more.

Segments:

(00:03:01) Internship with Mark Ewing

(00:07:10) “Mark and Brian's Excellent Environment” manual

(00:11:58) Poker on VT100 terminals

(00:14:46) Grad school and research

(00:17:23) The value of studying computer science

(00:21:07) Intuition and learning

(00:24:06) Reflecting on career patterns

(00:26:37) Hypergrowth and learning at Transmeta

(00:28:37) Debugging at the atomic level

(00:34:27) Evangelizing multithreading at Google

(00:39:56) The humble beginnings of Borg and Kubernetes

(00:47:10) The concept of inertia in system design

(00:50:07) The genesis of Kubernetes

(00:53:45) The open-source proposal

(00:57:25) The Unified Compute Working Group

(01:02:16) Designing the Kubernetes API

(01:05:03) AIP.dev and API design conventions

(01:08:02) The vision for a declarative model in Kubernetes

(01:17:25) Kubernetes as a DIY platform

(01:19:07) The evolution of Kubernetes

(01:21:40) The complexity of building a platform

(01:25:11) Style guides?

(01:28:23) Gotchas in Kubernetes workload APIs

(01:32:02) Understanding your thinking style

(01:35:37) Reflections on Kubernetes design choices

(01:44:08) The importance of getting it right the first time

(01:48:13) Designing for flexibility

(01:51:16) Collaboration and leadership

(01:52:21) The role of an Uber tech lead at Google

(01:56:33) “Giving away the Legos”

(02:02:29) Picking the right person to hand off

(02:06:41) Overcoming writer's block

Show Notes:

• API Design conventions: https://google.aip.dev/
• Brian’s blog: https://medium.com/@bgrant0607

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Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en