Julia Evans Portfolio
jvns.ca hosts hundreds of short, plainly-titled technical posts (how tcpdump works, what strace shows you, how DNS resolution actually happens) built up since the early 2010s, plus the illustrated "zines" she sells through Wizard Zines that cover the same debugging and systems topics.
What makes it work
A breakdown of the choices that make this portfolio stand out.
Post titles that are literally the question a reader typed into a search engine
Titles like "how tcpdump works" or explanations of git's data model are phrased the way someone frustrated at 2am would search, not the way a conference talk would be titled. That alignment between title and reader intent is why individual posts rank and get shared for years after publication.
Zines as a second format for the same expertise
Turning debugging knowledge into a purchasable illustrated zine (rather than only free blog posts) shows she treats her own technical understanding as a product, not just a marketing artifact — a distinction that separates a working practitioner's portfolio from a resume-padding blog.
Volume and consistency over polish
The archive runs into the hundreds of posts, many short and unglamorous (a five-paragraph note on one strace flag). That volume, sustained over a decade, is itself evidence of real day-to-day systems work — two heavily-designed case studies could never demonstrate the same breadth.
What DevOps Engineers can take from this
Specific, actionable tips to apply to your own portfolio — no generic advice.
Write post titles as the exact question you'd search for when stuck — specificity beats a clever headline for technical writing.
A short, focused post on one real debugging session is more convincing than a long post trying to cover a whole topic.
Consistency compounds: a decade of small, honest technical notes builds more credibility than a handful of polished but rare ones.
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