The IT XP

Chuck breaks down the latest articles in his Tech Lead Shift series and connects them to what he saw firsthand at AWS Summit in June 2025. Agentic systems are resolving outages without human intervention. One-person teams are shipping in weeks what used to take a dozen engineers two years. The corporate ladder is not just bending. It is breaking. This episode covers why AI is exposing bad manageme...

After fixing his delegation instructions, the drift didn't stop. It just moved. And when Chuck traced it back, he found something that had nothing to do with the agent. This episode is the third in the Tech Lead Shift leadership series, and it's where the first two threads come together. Episode 1 was about the leadership frameworks that break when you point them at a digital worker. Episode 2 was...

Chuck thought he was a pretty good delegator. Nearly 15 years of leading technology teams across complicated problems. Clear on the outcome, not just the task. Follow up without micromanaging. Sit down with the person when something goes sideways, find the disconnect, confirm in writing. That system worked. Then he started delegating to agents. This episode is the story of a Tuesday afternoon reco...

Chuck has been in IT for nearly three decades. He's watched technology shift from something only specialists understood to something everybody has in their pocket. And now he's watching something new happen in real time -- organizations deploying AI agents at full speed while nobody in the room asks the harder question: who's responsible for leading what comes next? In this episode, Chuck introduc...

Season 12 is officially here. Chuck breaks down the AI stack he's running — Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and ElevenLabs — and reframes how you should be talking to LLMs. Then, he takes you inside 12 days in China: a cashless, all-electric, QR-code-powered reality check on how far ahead mobile-first infrastructure has gotten. Plus, why he ditched the PhD path in favor of a LinkedIn and Substack l...

After 25+ years in IT, Chuck shares his unfiltered 2-year AI journey—from skeptic to AI-first. Why 2026 is the year IT professionals can't afford to wait on AI experimentation. It's December 31st, 2025—the last day of the year and the final episode of 2025 for The IT XP. Chuck gets personal about his two-year journey with AI, from initial skepticism to becoming AI-first in his workflow and content...

After 17 years at a large utility company managing decade-long waterfall projects, Don Freeman made a radical pivot into the fast-paced world of Web3 startups—without ever applying for the job. In this episode of The IT XP, Don shares how his contributions to the Ethereum Foundation's web3.py library caught SonarX's attention and led to a complete career transformation. We explore the stark contra...

A 2025 Deloitte survey of 23,000 workers across 44 countries found only 6% of Gen Z aspire to senior leadership. Chuck—upper-middle management for over a decade—unpacks the real math behind the 94% rejection rate, shares war stories on emotional labor, and previews next week's dive into AI replacing managers entirely. Homework: map your role to IC vs. management paths and share what you find.

Chuck breaks down his first-ever Microsoft Ignite experience in San Francisco—from navigating the massive Moscone Center venue to cutting through the "Copilot everything" sales pitch. If you've wondered whether mega-conferences like Ignite are worth the hype (and the $400+/night hotel bill), this episode delivers the unfiltered reality check. What You'll Get: Conference logistics reality: 20,000 a...

When Amazon Web Services' US-East-1 region went dark in October 2025, half the internet felt it. In this episode of The IT XP , Chuck breaks down what really happened — from the DNS and DynamoDB race condition that triggered the AWS outage to the cascading effects across global systems. He explains the technical side of DNS at scale in plain language, then connects it to bigger lessons for IT prof...

The I.T. XP Returns: Navigating IT Careers in 2025—AI, Layoffs, and Staying Relevant After a six-month hiatus, The I.T. XP podcast is back with unfiltered insights for IT professionals navigating today's rapidly changing tech landscape. Chuck returns to the audio format to tackle the biggest challenges facing sysadmins, IT engineers, and technology managers in 2025. What You'll Learn in This Episo...

We're kicking off Season 11 with an homage to legacy media where we read reddit questions and answer them live!

The Crowdstrike Falcon issue was an eye opener for a lot of IT organizations on the readiness of their BCP or DR plans. This isn't the first time we've seen this, but it's been a while where such a large outage has been seen across a number of different industries. I discuss how you can leverage this as an opportunity for you to be more visible within your organization and finding opportunities to...

Strap in as I take you back to my adventure at Western Governors University, where I crushed my Master of Science in Management and Leadership in one term (six months). Riding on the wisdom from a pivotal Reddit thread and armed with the solid gold insights from the Purdue OWL, I'm here to lay it all out bare: the good, the bad, and the brutally honest truths about speeding through WGU's competenc...

In this episode I discuss two paid platforms for your multi-cloud learning. These platforms I have leveraged in my own journey and I stand behind them. I know times are tough, but for those looking for a paid option to learn the various cloud platforms, these two may interest you. A Cloud Guru: https://www.pluralsight.com/cloud-guru Adrian Cantrill's Learning Platform (AWS and Azure only): https:/...

The cloud started off with well intentions of bringing more products to market faster, but it has turned into a competing race on how to optimize costs while deploying products at break neck speeds. I talked about how you can begin your multi-cloud journey because it is no longer a one provider show. Most organizations have gone multi-cloud and others are following suit. This show aims to help gui...

In this episode I discuss the concept of overemployment. What it is, why it may be something you want to dig into and what I'm going to do to uncover pros and cons in this overemployment mindset. Remember, overemployed does not equal overworked!

Being laid off is a gut punch. I know, I've been there twice. But guess what? I turned those lemons into lemonade (metaphorically, of course - who has the energy for a real lemonade stand after that?). My 9/11 Story:  https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/theitxp/498529485-theitxp-my-9112001-story.mp3 FreeCodeCamp:  https://www.youtube.com/c/Freecodecamp Cybrary.it:  https://www.cybrary.it/ HomeLab R...

Ditch the tech-coma and slay your 2024 goals! ⚔️ Procrastination got you in a chokehold? Career stuck in the buffering zone? Time to unleash the SMART goal secret weapon and rocket-boost your IT game. This ain't no burnout bonanza. We're talking consistent progress, confidence levels on fire, and finally unlocking your inner tech titan. 2024 is your year for IT domination, and SMART goals are your...

Unlock the world of game development and unleash your child's creativity with this must-watch video on Unreal Editor for Fortnite! Join us as we dive into the exciting process of creating custom Fortnite experiences. Encourage your children's passion for gaming while learning together, fostering a unique bonding experience. It's more than just playing; it's about nurturing their creative minds and...

Unlock the world of game development and unleash your child's creativity with this must-watch video on Unreal Editor for Fortnite! Join us as we dive into the exciting process of creating custom Fortnite experiences. Encourage your children's passion for gaming while learning together, fostering a unique bonding experience. It's more than just playing; it's about nurturing their creative minds and...

Epic games recently released the Unreal Editor for fortnite with Epic Games Store exclusivity. In this video, I discuss why I think that others should use the editor, as well as its full potential, and why it is actually a big opportunity for everyone involved, not just content creators. Links referenced in the show: https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning/courses/Yl6/fortnite-your-first-hour...

I'm the kind of guy that looks ahead to understand what's coming at us. I want to know what those changes will be so I can adapt accordingly. In this episode, I discuss some of the developing trends in IT that I expect to see occurring in the coming years. These changes are already underway, and if you're going to be a part of this industry, you should start paying attention - as they'll all have...

The IT industry is at an inflection point and continues to come to terms with disruptive technologies reshaping the world of work. Chuck discusses the role of A.I. as it pertains to our industry, and asks if it's possible for us to rethink how we interact with these technologies. In this episode, we argue why Information Technology is not the correct term for what we do as a profession. We argue t...

I have a confession to make: I'm becoming a gamer. Over the past year or so I've been spending more time playing video games. Not only that, but I've been enjoying it- and I have to admit, it's been pretty fun. So I wanted to share with you all some of the reasons why I've decided to immerse myself in this new hobby- and why maybe you should too...