Jim Shilts, founder of the North American DevOps Group (NADOG) and developer advocate at Shipa, shares his journey through the evolution of DevOps from its early stages to the current cloud-native era, emphasizing the significance of community involvement and the transition to Kubernetes and microservices. NADOG, initially started as a local community for IT practitioners to share knowledge and foster connections, expanded rapidly, adapting to virtual formats during the COVID-19 pandemic while maintaining its core values of learning and collaboration. Shilts reflects on the challenges and shifts in engineering efficiency over the years, describing how DevOps has moved from a focus on automation to a broader understanding that includes culture, collaboration, and breaking down silos between development and operations. He highlights the importance of community engagement and continuous learning, encouraging those new to the field to get involved in community groups like NADOG to benefit from shared experiences and networking opportunities.