Your Network Is Not a Toilet: Stop Flushing Infrastructure Expertise

First Things First: Credit Where It’s Due

Before diving into the messy state of how network engineering is perceived today, let me start by giving credit where it’s absolutely due.

Sometime back in 2023 or early 2024, after I had been regularly writing about the craft of network engineering, the protocols, the architectures, the hard lessons, I started noticing people tagging me with the hashtag #MakeNetworkEngineeringCoolAgain.

At first, I didn’t even know what it was or where it came from. It felt like a meme. However, after some digging, I realized that someone else was already out there, not just promoting the discipline, but doing it with clarity, charisma, and consistency. That person is Alexis Bertholf.

Let me be clear: Alexis is one of the brightest and most thoughtful content creators I’ve ever seen in the network engineering space. She's sharp, deeply technical, and somehow manages to turn complex infrastructure topics into content that’s approachable, energizing, and often even fun. She doesn't just know her stuff; she brings community along with her, which is a rare and powerful skill in our field.

So, before we go any further: Alexis, consider this a big, public shout-out. You’re a rock star. You’ve done more to lift up the visibility of network engineering than most of us ever could.

Why This Article Exists

Despite that movement, and the work of people like Alexis, something has continued to bother me.

You scroll through social media, and it's flooded with talk of AI, cybersecurity, software development, productivity hacks, and now even “vibe coding”. Meanwhile, posts about network engineering are… rare. Almost invisible.

This isn’t just an algorithmic trend or a branding issue.
This is a warning sign.
It signals that a critical layer of our digital world is being culturally ignored, and that we may be heading straight toward a talent collapse in one of the most foundational engineering disciplines of the Internet.

This article is my take on what’s happening.

I’ll walk you through the myths we’ve normalized, the consequences that are already showing up, and the urgency of fixing our cultural perception of what infrastructure engineers actually do, and why their role must be reclaimed.

You don’t have to agree with me. You might even disagree strongly. That’s okay.

But if you're willing to sit with the discomfort of what this might mean for the future of our systems, then let’s move on.

Because your network is not a toilet.
And we’re running out of people who know how to fix the pipes.