Managing BGP sessions and peering is a laborious and manual process generally. At Subspace, we built out a centralized system to administer our BGP sessions across our global network. This talk focuses on how a network programming neophyte built out the initial version of our BGP system and why building with a beginner’s mindset can actually produce interesting and novel results. There’s a reason this is a core engineering principle at Subspace. We’ll also cover how expertise in a domain is critical in refining and polishing that initial MVP and how that tension between the expert and the beginner yields a stronger and more resilient product