Reflection on vnykmshr

The war room

Sat, 10 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

By the morning of the event, there is nothing left to prepare. The capacity plan is done. The prescale is loaded. Infra has been briefed, service owners have been briefed, the runbook has been circulated.

The traffic comes in multi-x what we had planned for.

Nothing about the plan anticipated this. The numbers we used were the best numbers we had. The headroom we carved was the headroom we could afford. Neither was enough.

11/12/13

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Today is 11/12/13. The last date of the century with three consecutive numbers. It’s also my birthday.

I don’t usually do resolutions. I don’t usually do oaths. Today I’m making an exception and taking A Programmer’s Oath – a Hippocratic-style pledge for people who build software, written by Dionysis Zindros.

Most of it is what you’d expect: respect the people who taught you, share what you learn, don’t claim expertise you don’t have, don’t use your power for unfair profit, keep learning.

Just Another Brick in the Wall

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Tired of being another brick in the wall. A cog. A faceless name. No identity. No purpose. No dream. Just output.

I want to break out of this. Soar. Discover what I’m actually worth. But the walls are tall and the chains are heavy and every morning looks the same as the last one.

I know I was meant for more than this. Everyone thinks that. Does everyone think that?

Love, Life, Nostalgia

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I am writing this down because I’m afraid I’ll soften it later.

Coincidence. That’s all anything ever is. Nothing more than coincidence.

There are no miracles. There is no such thing as fate. Nothing is meant to be.

I have always known this.

I am sure of it now.

Monologue of an Idiotic Soul

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Some nights the code compiles fine and you still feel like a fraud.

Not the dramatic kind. Not the kind where someone’s about to find you out. The quiet kind, where you fixed the bug and shipped the feature and everyone moved on, and you’re sitting there thinking – did I actually understand what I just did, or did I just get lucky again?

I think I understand this system. Do I really, though. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now. And yet I spent three hours on something that turned out to be a missing semicolon. That could happen to anyone. Could it, though.