Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

Post by ok_dad » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 9:20 PM UTC

tetha wrote: post #12

Yeah, we discourage production changes starting first or second december week, and start freezing changes third december week until it's frozen solid fourth december week until second week of january. December tends to be hell for our customers, so stability should be a priority there. And honestly, no one wants to work on holidays. So lets just wrap everything starting in december, maybe use the third week for some…

Post by muzani » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 9:26 PM UTC

kaashif wrote: post #33

whalesalad wrote: post #26

Meanwhile 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.

> non-religious Or a member of one of the religions that don't celebrate Christmas.

Post by codebolt » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 9:31 PM UTC

yardstick wrote: post #35

bertil wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s a great policy as it’s clearly intended to help people when they need it, and get people to unplug when it’s valued by their loved ones. _However_ (that part is probably best bookmarked until Jan 2nd), it also betrays that your system is brittle and can be broken by a bad commit. Don’t do it because you want people to grind until Dec 24th at 6 pm. Do it because it’s great the rest of the year, too. I’d…

How do you detect errors like this? What is an error? Is a business logic bug going to be picked up by this process automatically, or is some manual steps involved? Ie a point of sale app releases an update that automatically halves the amount to charge, but displays the full amount to the merchant in the UI. Unit tests pass (because an engineer made a human mistake). Backend calls are correctly used, no errors throw…

Post by smoyer » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

bertil wrote: post #25

Always 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.…

Post by steve_adams_86 » Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 9:42 PM UTC

chunkymilk wrote: post #34

bertil wrote: post #25

Always 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.…

> Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. I do this with internal teams at work. I've found approaching other teams with issues with their library/framework in a "this could be our mistake" manner really helps in keeping them from getting defensive and stonewalling.