The power of information sharing

Yesterday, after an interesting debugging session, I was able to fix a long standing issue that was quite tricky to find. This problem had been plaguing the system ever since we inherited it from the customer. The problem shouldn't have been so difficult to find as it is really obvious when you understand what happened.

The reason why it eluded us for so long is that the root cause (database deadlock) was hidden behind layers of abstraction (ORM) that did not do a good enough job of abstracting the physical characteristics of the system.

Although the fix was simple, the root cause was tricky. To make matters worse, that pattern that caused the problem is used everywhere throughout the application. So this morning, I spent 30 minutes to write up an email explaining the pattern and the problems with it. The email also spoke of a way to fix the broken pattern. Sent it to everyone in the team.

To my surprise, the payout was immediate. Before the day was over, I had a patch to review. A problem with a customer notification email not going out. And lo and behold, the cause was a database deadlock. And the fix was to modify the pattern the way that was outlined in my email.

The lesson here is that knowledge is valuable, but it is much more valuable when it is shared.

Serendipitous Latte

The actual cup

This evening, after dinner, I went for a latte at Starbucks. I was enjoying the beverage listening to the standard coffee house music. Tracy Chapman if I remember although my odds are pretty good with that guess considering the location.

Then I did something I rarely do. I read the little thought on the cup.

Failure's hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.

-Po Bronson, Author

I kept the cup. Even took a picture to remember.

And then I started to ask myself if I was successful at the wrong thing?