lots of interesting responses to my tweet on code as liability. let's clear a few things up.
first, liability doesn't just mean "thing that causes problems". the primary definition is actually "thing you are responsible for."
first, liability doesn't just mean "thing that causes problems". the primary definition is actually "thing you are responsible for."
if i had my snarky ops pants on, i would ask why such a visceral reaction to the idea of being responsible for your own creations? do they perhaps ... suck to operate?
but i'm a ceo now, i don't throw the easy punches.
but i'm a ceo now, i don't throw the easy punches.
for all the people grousing about how green diffs are necessary to move the business forward: believe me, i completely fucking agree.
but you can't clean up the problem by lecturing the people being shit on downstream. it starts at the source: good clean software ownership.
but you can't clean up the problem by lecturing the people being shit on downstream. it starts at the source: good clean software ownership.
you have to empower your software engineers to understand their code in production, watch it live, poke and prod it. you have to put them on call, so they reap the consequences of what they hath wrought. they have to feel the pain just as viscerally as we do in ops.
not (primarily) because we want revenge, but because this is how things get *better*.
when you give the people with the power and context to make change a portion fo the pain, things *get better*. you won't believe how fast they get better.
when you give the people with the power and context to make change a portion fo the pain, things *get better*. you won't believe how fast they get better.
have you ever read those magazine articles about people who were born without the ability to feel pain? first you're like "man that would be neat!" then you realize they grow up deformed and horrible and die young.
some pain is a *necessary* feedback mechanism for growth.
some pain is a *necessary* feedback mechanism for growth.
good pain: "OW that stove was hot hot hot" i will snatch my fingers away before they burn
bad pain: "OW this dentist drill is hurting me why are you drilling it into my leg why am i strapped down and unable to move what is this dream owww"
^^ a parable
bad pain: "OW this dentist drill is hurting me why are you drilling it into my leg why am i strapped down and unable to move what is this dream owww"
^^ a parable
the moral of the story is, pain is a necessary (and deeply minimizable) component of growth. the other components are autonomy, knowledge, and the power to change things.
all developers really need are deploy privileges and good real-time observability for their instrumentation
all developers really need are deploy privileges and good real-time observability for their instrumentation
and monitoring is not observability because it doesn't give you access to the world as experienced from the perspective of the application code.
ok i forgot what i was angry about, i guess that means this thread has petered out into me shaking a cane at the world again
