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by hhas01 2426 days ago
My software shits itself all the time. What matters is that it does so safely. And when it doesn’t, I can tell you why, because I know what corners have been cut and why, and I’m not afraid to accept and acknowledge my responsibilities in such fuckups.

And yeah, I count on the fingers of one hand the number of web developers I’ve dealt with over the last decade who I’d be willing to cross the road to piss on were they on fire, and still have fingers to spare. They’re just the worst of the worst.

There was NO excuse for the failure described in the article. There was NO excuse for the described response to that failure. Yet such base incompetence and gross irresponsibility is not only systemic but entrenched, rationalized, and embraced in this industry. With responses like yours, it’s not hard to tell why. Buncha Children.

2 comments

> There was NO excuse for the failure described in the article.

In this case, right. In general, stuff happens. There’s a tradeoff between reliability and effort. The correct reliability target is not 100%, because you can’t get 100% anyway, and as you approach 100% reliability the cost increases without bound.

I’m not sure what the rest of your comment is about besides taking a big shit on web developers and talking about how awful they are.

There is a precious small percentage of developers who are really good at making reliable systems and they have the burden / responsibility of spreading their knowledge. They work with the other actual developers you hire, those beautiful imperfect developers who cut corners, test in production, and don’t write tests.

You make changes to your culture and your practices. You build monitoring and rollout automation. You increase test coverage.

If you just call people children you’re going to be there, on the sidelines, watching other people build real products. You don’t teach people by making fun of them.

> I count on the fingers of one hand the number of [X], and still have fingers to spare

So many words to non precisely say one to three (assuming a five finger hand).