First rule of distributed systems: don’t build a distributed system if you can avoid it Second rule of distributed systems: you probably can’t avoid it

For someone who has a masters degree and 15+ years of post-education work experience, I sure do spend a lot of time dreaming (nightmare-ing?) that I’ve somehow managed to unknowingly forget to go to class and thus failed or overslept the SATs. 🫥

Parentheses! Em dashes! Comma splices! Semicolons! Welcome to ADHD Grammar (since every thought comes with exciting bonus content), friends!

My dog believes, completely and without hesitation, that we can both exist in the exact same spot on the couch. I envy her faith in a reality unburdened by physics. To be fair, she’s correct… as long as “don’t squish your human” isn’t a requirement.

I do not know anything about this drug or the reasons for its nonapproval, but this is the exact kind of scenario that shows the failure of making sweeping policy generalizations about evidence that simply cannot account for some scenarios and rare diseases :(

Things I ask @obdue.bsky.social: “does the pencil count as a candle if the tip of the pencil is currently on fire?” The “what is an incident, really” vibes are strong here 😂

Schrödinger’s Incident: that brief moment when you wake up knowing you’re about to take on-call handover, but haven’t checked your work phone yet. The incident both exists and doesn’t— until you unlock your phone and open the handover thread.

Why the hell does everything have to happen at once?

My thoughts are like race cars today. Bless my husband, who intercepted me physically vibrating on 4 hrs sleep, took my half-full Dr Pepper and said, “Maybe don’t finish this today?” while I rapid-fired through tasks and lectured the dogs on how systemic failure meant no clean spoons.

It’s 2:25 a.m. I’m trying to finish a work project. An armadillo has somehow climbed onto our front porch, stranded itself, and is now frantically scratching to get inside. I’m about to wake up my sick husband because he’s the vet in this relationship, and I am not equipped for this. Texas, y’all.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to flee my house due to a multi-day power outage combined with extreme temps in the last 5 years, I’d have $3. Not enough to buy my favorite Starbucks drink, but up from $2 earlier this week. Which feel like a lot for someone who lives in a major city.

How many throat lozenges and cups of tea is too many for a human while sick in bed? Asking for a self who is approaching 20% chamomile at this point.

Remember, if you EVER need anything, I’m only 5 missed phone calls, three unanswered texts, several unread DMs, and an unaccepted LinkedIn request away

Turbulence: an excellent case study in safety vs. perception. The data says I’m safe. I trust the system. I trust my friends in aviation who tell me I’m safe. But my body still braces. Heart races. Panic hits. Being safe is not necessarily the same as feeling safe. I’m fascinated by this.

So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects.

Just one more day of pushing the limits of chronic illness and back-to-back activity. Just one more. “What’s the worst that could happen?” I ask myself, reaching for the Ibuprofen. (Rasmussen’s dynamic safety model and Dekker’s drift into failure quietly join the group chat.)

Potential 🔥 take: the fact that you’d make a different judgement call now doesn’t mean the original decision was bad. Decisions are made in context, with the information and constraints and signals available then. Judgement is a timestamped event and the past didn’t have your present

The dog put herself to bed before 8p tonight and honestly that’s a completely reasonable response to this Monday

April 1 is the jumpscare of holidays

Post conference vibes: - I’m inspired and want to do several hundred things all at once— also I want to do nothing at all please let me sleep - oh thank goodness introvert quiet time— also oh wait my friends are scattered around the globe again, this feels lonely - Dogs! I’m home with my dogs!

Very few know we've (@adaptivecapacity.bsky.social) been developing tools to help support us. After 7 years & 6 patents (!) we realized others were interested in integrating/commercializing "Churchkey." We’re looking for partners interested in licensing Churchkey's IP. churchkey.info

I just exploded my second squishy stress ball in a week all over my hands and desk and I really don’t know what this says about my life…

this week has been one hell of a year.

Is it insomnia or is it my “I’m not our current on call but I think there might be an incident brewing” spidey sense tingling? (Narrator: it would be both)

If you're attending #SREcon Americas in March, please consider submitting a Lightning Talk! www.usenix.org/conference/s.... If you've never seen a Lightning Talk, allow me to introduce you to one of my all time favorites by @jpaulreed.com : youtu.be/pavDzPLGVrY?...

Being terrified was starting to give way to being really angry.

Texas, where you wear shorts one day and every coat you can possibly layer the next. This is fine. 🥶

Ah, the week between Christmas and New Years. Aka the time I discover mid-installation that the bird feeder pole mount I got for my parents’ new bird feeder is not in fact as “universal” as advertised, all while hoping my pager doesn’t go off in parallel. *shakes fist at bird feeder situation*

It’s a glorious thing when two musical people live together and one is particular about gear but the other will play anything I may have just dismissed a set of 20 variety picks one by one as “nope” and will return to my very picky (ha) pick of choice while depositing the rest on my spouse’s desk

TIL what monotropism is and…. Hmmm. Well. Yep. That’s a helpful concept that explains a lot. I thought everyone was out there digging attention tunnels?

I just excitedly exclaimed to someone I barely know at work “oh I’m a huge Safety-II nerd!!” and now that I’ve had a moment to process my statement: 1) wow, I am *really* a nerd. 2) I chose to wear this enthusiasm proudly

Happy Unsubscribe from Marketing Emails day to all who celebrate!

I’m always a fan of Lorin’s blogs— This one is well worth the read for how well it breaks some common patterns down. Also, @norootcause.surfingcomplexity.com, I’d like to petition for you to make merch including a shirt with “I am a card carrying member of the no root cause club” on it.

Family holiday card photos are one of the most under appreciated examples of “it’s not amazing that it breaks, it’s amazing that it ever works at all” in action. 3 humans, 5 dogs, sitting in the middle of a forest, all smiling and dressed nicely and looking at the camera? Recreated yearly?

Happy “the clock on the wall changes but the dog’s internal breakfast clock stays the same” day to everyone in the US who celebrates. *yawns* How is that extra hour of sleep, everyone else?

It’s remarkable that most software stuff works most of the time given the astonishing levels of complexity in modern tech stacks.

My PHEV car has been in the shop twice in the first 2 months of its life. In both events, the complexity of the PHEV bits has been both a key contributor to the issue and key to the car “degrading” successful (ie not leaving me stranded roadside). Feels like there’s a complex systems theme here?

Proud resilience engineering weirdo

Not knowing why something broke is scary. Not knowing how you fixed it is horrifying.

Hey! So if you're interested in hearing about Resilience Engineering (notably its intersection with Software Engineering, but otherwise too) I made a list of some fantastic folks in that space! bsky.app/profile/did:...