I’ve seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the code, which made adding the next feature even harder. When they altered their point of view from “I must preserve our investment in this code” to “This code made sense for a while, but perhaps we’ve learned all we can from it,” and gave themselves permission to re-think their abstractions in light of current requirements, everything got easier. Once they inlined the code, the path forward became obvious, and adding new features become faster and easier.The moral of this story? Don’t get trapped by the sunk cost fallacy. If you find yourself passing parameters and adding conditional paths through shared code, the abstraction is incorrect. It may have been right to begin with, but that day has passed
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Reading “The Practice of Cloud System Administration”
In distributed systems, failure is normal. Hardware failures that are rare, when multiplied by thousands of machines, become common. Therefore failures are assumed, designs work around them, and software anticipates them. Failure is an expected part of the landscape.
— Thomas A. Limoncelli, Strata R. Chalup, Christina J. Hogan, “The Practice of Cloud System Administration”
Reading “The Practice of Cloud System Administration”
To manage a large distributed system, one must have visibility into the system. The ability to examine internal state—called introspection—is required to operate, debug, tune, and repair large systems.
— Thomas A. Limoncelli, Strata R. Chalup, Christina J. Hogan, “The Practice of Cloud System Administration”
Reading “The Practice of Cloud System Administration”
A typical response to a risky process is to do it as rarely as possible. Thus there is a temptation to do as few releases as possible. The result is “mega-releases” launched only a few times a year. However, by batching up so many changes at once, we actually create more risk. How can we be sure thousands of changes, released simultaneously, will all work on the first try? We can’t. Therefore we become even more recalcitrant toward and fearful of making changes. Soon change becomes nearly impossible and innovation comes to a halt.
— Thomas A. Limoncelli, Strata R. Chalup, Christina J. Hogan, “The Practice of Cloud System Administration”
Seven Habits Reread
Correct maps will infinitely impact our personal and interpersonal effectiveness far more than any amount of effort expended on changing our attitudes and behaviors.
— Steven Covey, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”
Seven Habits Reread
In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do. We all know it. There are people we trust absolutely because we know their character. Whether they’re eloquent or not, whether they have the human relations techniques or not, we trust them, and we work successfully with them.
— Steven Covey, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”
Hi! I’m posting this from TechGirlz and Comcast’s class at Constitution High !!!
Hello everyone!
I’m here at Constitution High School with a terrific class of students learning WordPress with TechGirlz and Comcast.
No matter what you think about Eminent Domain, this sounds wrong
Adam Lang is Philadelphian who has spent years becoming part of a neighborhood, rehabbing his house, investing in the future of his community, is facing a notice that his home is going to get seized for a redevelopment plan. Read his story.
Howard Hall: “All I need to know I learned in Karaoke”
I know quite a few folks who make it a thing to go out to Karaoke more than a few times a year. My good friend Howard Hall (whose birthday is today – Happy Birthday Howard!), posted some thoughts on Karaoke on a lesson it has for all of us.
Profile of Mark Horvath, creating an online home for the stories of the homeless
Philantropy.com: “After Living on the Streets, a Nonprofit Leader Seeks to Give the Homeless a Voice”.
Check out Mark Horvath’s Invisible People.