It tends to be a tradition for me to be oncall over at least one of the winter holidays, this year I (again) get to preside over a vendor vs vendor showdown where the only loser is our hardware!
Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
121–130 of 207 posts
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#122FYI Israelis are not on holiday - our holidays are on whole different dates. Hire Israelis and experience no down time while working with Silicon Valley level talent
Just hope stuff doesn’t break on sabbath, they ain’t touching no computer that day :)
Most Israelis in tech are not religious and take on call duties on Saturday (Sabbath) just like Christians take on call duties on Sundays.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just hope stuff doesn’t break on sabbath, they ain’t touching no computer that day :)
They'd need a goy on-call to flick the switch.
As I wrote in another comment, most Israelis in tech are not religious and take on call duties during Saturdays and religious holidays
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#124Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. If you don’t do it for the sake of the person you are asking for help, do it because it works better. That’s the most practical advice [0] ever given by Hans Rosling [1], the Fact master himself: > In fact, I have the secret to how to get the best help immediately from any customer service, like the phone company or the bank or anything. I have the best line, it always works.…
I think this works great sometimes, but I've been in plenty of situations where "I messed up" leads to being railroaded into the "boilerplate tech support" discussion tree. "Did you try doing X", "Did you confirm that Y is Z", "Make sure your VPN is working, try installing a new config", and finally "That's strange, double check all your parameters, there may be a typo in there somewhere"
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, that sounds very holistic in theory, but in practice just doesn't work out. A few days ago I suddenly had my french press for coffee suddenly shatter and almost blast hot coffee over my upper body. How am I supposed to start that call with "Hi, I'm jorvi and I made a mistake"..? It's not like that is a unique situation either. And you can guarantee that if you tell customer service "I made a mistake", and it…
How can you be sure if you would never try?
You can't, but it turns out acting reasonably under uncertainty is a better goal than being sure of things.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#126Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. If you don’t do it for the sake of the person you are asking for help, do it because it works better. That’s the most practical advice [0] ever given by Hans Rosling [1], the Fact master himself: > In fact, I have the secret to how to get the best help immediately from any customer service, like the phone company or the bank or anything. I have the best line, it always works.…
"I've Made a Huge Mistake."
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#127On call sucks so badly. At this point of my life, I firmly believe that there's not enough amount of money that can compensate the mental suffering it implies. Even more if the company you work for has this mentality of "deal with it" without making improvements, which was my case in the last period I did on call and what made the camel's back to break for me. Nowadays I simply refuse it. For those who are still on t…
With the last (and only) job that required me to be on call I quit the day before I was scheduled. I've always refused to do it. Devs have no business doing it.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am currently viewing this on ethically sourced rfc1149 (birds gave consent via a scientifically proven “brain electrode interface”), manually decoding packets using an abacus made out of various animal droppings foraged on the forest floor. If I can’t view your content this way, it should not be on the internet.
Oh, so you're just going to deprive the trees of the nutrients those animal droppings would've provided? Ethics, indeed.
Amazing
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#129Meanwhile a huge number of us (non-religious? introverted kernel compiling cave dwellers?) treat this period no differently than any other week in the year. I'll be here keepin the servers runnin :horns: It's actually my favorite time of the year. Everyone is gone, it is quiet, and I can get shit done.
Just like San Francisco during Burning Man!
Build A 300-Mile Wall Around SF During Burning Man:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190213021206/https://megagogo....
>A community effort to construct a 300-mile wall in one week and prevent Burning Man attendees from returning to the Bay Area.
>About This Project
>We want to help Burning Man attendees continue their favorite week of the year, and allow them to keep experiencing the genuine community and deep connections they can only feel while at Burning Man. To do this, we will build a 300-mile wall around the entire Bay Area during Burning Man.
>For the rest of us, what’s normally our favorite week of the year… lasts forever!
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#130Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. If you don’t do it for the sake of the person you are asking for help, do it because it works better. That’s the most practical advice [0] ever given by Hans Rosling [1], the Fact master himself: > In fact, I have the secret to how to get the best help immediately from any customer service, like the phone company or the bank or anything. I have the best line, it always works.…
I mean, that sounds very holistic in theory, but in practice just doesn't work out. A few days ago I suddenly had my french press for coffee suddenly shatter and almost blast hot coffee over my upper body. How am I supposed to start that call with "Hi, I'm jorvi and I made a mistake"..? It's not like that is a unique situation either. And you can guarantee that if you tell customer service "I made a mistake", and it…
"Hi, I'm jorvi and seems I made a mistake or something, my french press just exploded in front of me! Can you help me figure out what went wrong?" is one way of putting it.