Stolen directly from one of Theo Schlossnagle’s presentation slides:
Discipline is important in any job.
Discipline is “controlled behavior resulting from training, study, and practice”
In my experience, discipline is the most frequently missing ingredient in the field of web operations.
I believe this to be caused by a lack of focus, laziness, that it is a job instead of an art.
As in any trade:
To be truly excellent, one must treat it as a craft
One must become a craftsman
Through experience learn discipline
And through practice achieve excellence
The full presentation, should you be interested: Scalable Internet Architectures on YouTube
Also awesome: Career Development presentation by Theo.