Comment by klingon78 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by klingon78 | Hacker News Reader

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I have a reliability and risk avoidance mindset, but I’ve had to stand back because my mental gas tank for trying to keep things going is near empty.

I’ve really struggled working with others that either are both ignorant and apathetic about the business’s ability to deal with risk or believe that it’s their job to keep putting duct tape over the duct tape that breaks multiple times a day while users struggle.

I like seeing these comments reminding others to a wear seat belt or have backups for their backups, but I don’t know whether I should care more about reliability. I work in an environment that’s a constant figurative fire.

I also like to spend time with my family. I know it’s just a job, and it would be even if I were the only one responsible for it; that doesn’t negate the importance of reliability, but there is a balance.

If you are dedicated to reliability, don’t let this deter you. Some have a full gas tank, which is great.

Consider:

> ... [F]inance is fundamentally about moving money and risk through a network. [1]

Your employer has taken on many, many risks as part of their enterprise. If every risk is addressed the company likely can’t operate profitably. In this context, your business needs to identify every risk, weigh the likelihood and the potential impact, decide whether to address or accept the risk, and finally, if they decide to address the risk, whether to address it in-house our outsource it.

You’ve identified a risk that is currently being “accepted” by your employer, one that you’d like to address in-house. Perhaps they’ve taken on the risk unintentionally, out of ignorance.

As a professional the best I can do is to make sure that the business isn’t ignorant about the risk they’ve taken on. If the risk is too great I might even leave. Beyond that I accept that life is full of risks.

[1] Gary Gensler, “Blockchain and money”, Introduction https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-s1...

This resonates with me. I notice my gas tank rarely depletes because of technology. It doesn’t matter how brain dead the 00’s oracle forms app with absurd unsupported EDI submission excel thinga-ma-bob that requires a modem ... <fill in the rest of the dumspter fire as your imagination deems>. Making a tech stack safe is a fun challenge.

Apathetic people though, that can be really tough going. It’s just that way “because”. Or my favourite “oh we don’t have permission to change that”, how about we make the case and get permission? _horrified looks_ sometimes followed by pitch forks.

Reliability is there to keep your things running smoothly during normal operations. Backups are there for when you reach the end of your reliability rope. Neither is really a good replacement for the other. The most reliable systems will still fail eventually, and the best of backups can't run your day to day operations.

At the end of the day you have a budget (of any kind) and a list of priorities on which to spend it. It's up to you or your management to set a reasonable budget, and to set the right priorities. If they refuse, leave or you'll just burn the candle at both ends and just fade out.

Backups are a reliability tool, yes.

A backup on its own is of little worth if unused.

When a backup is used to re-enable something, then the amount of time disabled may be decreased. When it is, this is reliability- we keep things usable and in function, more than not.

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