We drove through the night, the RV a strange mix of too hot (near the heater) and too cold (in the loft where I was “sleeping”). In the morning we woke up to a Coachella sunrise. We stopped for gas, refueled and counted the buses and trucks making their way to and from the massive music festival just down the road.
The drive through Palm Springs was perforated by Scott’s Hawaiian music pumping through the speakers. Even at this early hour, Andi, Wayne and Jordan have their laptops open. These guys never stop coding, compiling and cloud-building; in the case of Andi, not even to sleep it seems. As the guys worked well into the early hours of the morning (and through them) it occurred to me that they don’t think about what they do as work. The decision to hop into an RV and drive thirty-plus hours through the American West, eyes down to their laptops the whole time was … fun.
It’s a stark reminder for me that Rackspace is a fun place to work, no doubt, full of remote-controlled helicopters and go karts in the office, but it’s ultimately a company poised to redefine what computing technology will be in the future. We’ve placed a heavy bet on OpenStack and for all the right reasons: we know open, collaborative communities produce better work. We know that when you give something worthwhile away, it comes back to you tenfold. We hire the best and brightest and we know that they will deliver, hand in hand with our partners across the industry (Red Hat we heart you) and beyond (what up, NASA?)
Time for more coffee and Hawaiian music. Keep up with us on twitter at @RoadStackRV and join the fun with #RSRV.
