What I Wish I Knew Before Using GCP (Lessons from 3 Years)

Three years on GCP. I've made mistakes. I've learned lessons. Here's what I wish someone told me on day one. First: set up billing alerts immediately. That $10 mistake could have been $100. Second: use labels. Label everything with project, environment, cost center. You'll thank yourself when the bill comes. Third: the free tier is generous but limited. Read the limits before you build. Fourth: IAM is boring but critical. Spend a day learning it. Fifth: Cloud Run is almost always the answer for web apps. It's simple, it's cheap, it scales. Sixth: the documentation is actually good. Read it. Seventh: there's a GCP podcast. Listen to it. You'll learn about new features before you need them. Eighth: don't use the default VPC. Build your own. It's not hard. Ninth: support is worth it if you're running anything serious. Tenth: GCP is constantly evolving. What you learned a year ago might be outdated. Stay curious. These lessons cost me time, money, and stress. Learn from my mistakes.