Chaos Monkey is actually a reference to a tool that I think netflix released? huh. yeah, I see it on github: https://github.com/Netflix/SimianArmy https://gi

Chaos Monkey is actually a reference to a tool that I think netflix released? huh. yeah, I see it on github: https://github.com/Netflix/SimianArmy https://github.com/Netflix/SimianArmy I remember someone giving a talk on it in the mid aughts, and I think it's a wonderful way to describe what happens in real-world networks and systems. >Assuming our hardware was reliable was a mistake. Writing code so that it's chaos-monkey-proof is a great step forward. Hah. Part of it is that I am the guy who is responsible for keeping that multi-year uptime (and on most of my own hardware, this is mostly a matter of vetting updates, security and otherwise, and implementing workarounds) - but I like to point out that building a system that can deal with the chaos monkey is... well, it's way harder than throwing up a reliable SQL server with a reliable backup and someone like me on pager. Especially if you want to beat the "the system fucks up once a year" record that even mediocre server-grade hardware can achieve. That said, if you can write such software, I agree that the end result is better, I mean, like half my skillset is in Linux/BSD and environments where reboots cost big bucks, but I'm not going to cry about turning in my pager. I'm just saying, it's hard and most people screw it up and end up building something less reliable than well-managed hardware with a competent oncall. >As for the generational thing... meh, we're ugly. People like hiring the beautiful folks. Startup folks think they're immortal, having some greying old fart in the corner wheezing away reminds them that they're not. Eh, I think that most of the startups that only hire pretty people also tend to pay such that they can't afford someone who is good who has a few decades of experience, so it might be more of a budgetary/age thing; young people, generally, will work for less. I think it might also be a San Francisco thing. The fitness of the people interviewing me goes up and the wages they offer me go down when I head up that direction.