whoami: Network Engineering's Identity Crisis

In Linux, the whoami command returns the identity of the current user.

But what happens when engineers ask that same question about themselves?

Who am I if I am no longer the person who knows every command? Who am I if automation can perform the work I spent years mastering? Who am I if AI can write code I never learned how to write?

At AutoCon 5 in Munich, Andy Lapteff sat down with Network Automation Forum founders Chris Grundemann and Scott Robohn to examine one of the biggest barriers to technological change: identity.

For decades, network engineers built their careers around mastering the CLI. Certifications, maintenance windows, troubleshooting experience, and vendor-specific knowledge reinforced a particular definition of what it meant to be a skilled engineer.

Automation challenges that definition.

When our skills become part of our identity, new tools do not simply feel unfamiliar. They can feel threatening. Instead of objectively evaluating the technology, we protect the version of ourselves that the technology appears to be replacing.

This conversation explores how identity shapes our worldview, determines which ideas we are willing to consider, influences our career decisions, and ultimately affects our outcomes.

Andy also shares his own journey from publicly resisting network automation to working with Python, GitHub, AI coding tools, and open-source collaboration.

The group discusses why automation reallocates attention rather than simply saving time, how it reduces cognitive load, why engineers do not need to become professional programmers, and how AI is changing what technical expertise looks like.

The tools will keep changing.

The more important question is whether your identity can change with them.

Links:
• AONE Website: https://artofnetworkengineering.com
• NAF: https://networkautomation.forum/
• Scott Robohn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrobohn/
• Chris Grundemann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cgrundemann/

Full show notes, transcript and links: https://artofnetworkengineering.com/episodes/whoami-network-engineering-s-identity-crisis

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