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D2DO288: Technology, Career, and Finding a Purpose with Deana Solis

Dec 3, 2025
Deana Solis is a freelance FinOps engineer, mentor, and public speaker with a knack for cloud cost optimization. She explores the critical yet often overlooked role of communication in tech careers. The discussion dives into AI's limitations, critiquing confident but incorrect outputs. Deana shares insights on finding purpose in technology and emphasizes the value of mentorship and community. She advises new graduates to embrace curiosity and flexibility, highlighting how observing cloud issues led her to a fulfilling career in FinOps.
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INSIGHT

Communication Amplifies Career Progress

  • Communication and teaching are highly transferable skills that accelerate career growth.
  • Deana Solis says improving how you explain things reveals gaps in your own understanding and advances your career.
INSIGHT

AI's Confidence Masks Its Guessing

  • AI confidently guesses and lacks the human feedback loop needed for accurate, contextual answers.
  • Deana warns models present untested confidence and systemic bias that misleads non-experts.
ANECDOTE

Terraform Revealed AI Hallucinations

  • Deana found AI often misled her when she asked about Terraform and simple infra topics.
  • That experience exposed how models make giant leaps of logic without transparency.
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