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> after a couple of glasses of red wine, we deleted the production database by accident > It’s tempting to blame the disaster on the couple of glasses of red w
by danellis 6y ago
> after a couple of glasses of red wine, we deleted the production database by accident
> It’s tempting to blame the disaster on the couple of glasses of red wine. However, the function that wiped the database was written whilst sober.
It was _written_ then, but you're still admitting to the world that your employees do work on production systems after they've been drinking. Since they were working so late, one might think this was emergency work, but it says "doing some late evening coding". I think this really highlights the need to separate work time from leisure time.
- yelloweyes 6y agolol it's a scoreboard app
- beervirus 6y agoSounds like they weren't trying to do work on production.
- cle 6y agoNo. Your systems and processes should protect you from doing something stupid, because we’ve all done stupid things. Most stupid things are done whilst sober. In this case there were like 10 relatively easy things that could have prevented this. Your ability to mentally compile and evaluate your code before you hit enter is not a reliable way to protect your production systems. Coding after drinking is probably not a good idea of course, but “think better” is not the right takeaway from this.
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago> Coding after drinking is probably not a good idea I’ve done some of my most productive work this way. Not on production systems fortunately, and not in a long time.
- marcosdumay 6y agoYes, it can be productive (depends on exactly what you are doing). But I imagine you revise your work while sober before you deploy it.
- ultrarunner 6y agoRiding the Ballmer Peak is a precarious operation, but I simply cannot deny its occasional effectiveness.
- onlinejk 6y agoWell played, and it's always pleasant to find XKCD in one's search results. (And an on-topic one at that). For ref: https://xkcd.com/323/ https://xkcd.com/323/
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nicoburns 6y agoA highly experienced developer in their 50s who I used to work with said that they used to regularly sit down and code with a pint. Until on one occasion they introduced some Undefined Behaviour into their aplication during one of these sessions and it took them 3 days to track down! Probably less of an issue with modern tooling. Still, it certainly makes me think twice before drinking and coding.
- bigbubba 6y agoYou know it's totally feasible to make a car that won't turn on for drunk people. Should those systems be installed on all cars, in pursuit of creating systems that don't permit stupid actions? Maybe such a breathalyzer interlock could be installed on your workstation too. After all, your systems and processes should prevent you from stupid things.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cle 6y agoDon’t be absurd. Of course there are costs and tradeoffs to guardrails, and you have to balance the tradeoffs based on your requirements. This person had to publicly apologize to their customers. One or two low-cost guardrails could have prevented it and would probably have been worth the cost.
- bigbubba 6y agoIs that absurd? Systems should prevent mistakes, unless the part needed to implement that is a hundred dollars or so? That seems like quite the walk-back. Courts order alcoholics to install these things, they're established available technology. What tradeoffs are you balancing here?
- TomVDB 6y agoIt's a free website to keep scoreboards. Not a mission critical nuclear missile launcher. (But if your mission critical system relies on that scoreboard website, that's on you...)
- emodendroket 6y agoHonestly not a bad idea to install the interlocks on all cars.
- WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
- watwut 6y ago> Most stupid things are done whilst sober. That is because most companies these days have processes around drinking in workplace, coming in drunk and working drunk. Most mistakes are done sober only in environments where drinking couple of vine cups and then doing production change is considered unacceptable. In environment where drunk people work, mistakes are made when drunk.
- bstar77 6y agoI am not a drinker myself (drink 1-3 times a year), but in the past I have coded while slightly buzzed on a few occasions. I could not believe the level of focus I had. I never investigated it further, but I'm pretty sure the effects of alcohol on our coding abilities is not nearly as bad as it affects our motor skills. Imo, fatigue is far worse.
- emodendroket 6y agoI've found just the opposite. Any booze at all and I basically can't work for hours.
- physicles 6y agoMe too, partly because of the reduced short-term memory (which coding relies on heavily). But more than that, my motivation drops through the floor because I can’t shake the thought that life is too short to fight with computers all day.
- henearkr 6y agoWhen I was not yet a teetotaler, each time I was hitting my maths textbooks after a few drinks, I could not believe my level of focus, and everything was clear and obvious. Textbook pages were flying at a speed never seen. Of course the next day, when re-reading the same pages, I was always discovering that the previous day I had everything wrong, nothing was obvious, and all my reasoning when with alcohol was false because simplistic and oblivious of any mathematical rigor.
- centimeter 6y agoSimilar effect with psilocybin or LSD - you think you had a really profound and insightful experience, but once you think back on it you realize that (most of the time) you just got the impression that it was profound and insightful.
- gassius 6y ago
- cranekam 6y agoThe whole piece has a slightly annoying flippant tone to it. We were drunk! Computers just.. do this stuff sometimes! Better to sound contrite and boring in such a situation IMO. Also I agree with other comments: doing some work after a glass or two should be fine because you should have other defences in place. “Not being drunk” shouldn’t be the only protection you have against disaster.
- danjac 6y agoThe Exxon Valdez comes to mind - the company blamed the drunk captain, but this was just part of huge systemic failures and negligence.
- Aeolun 6y agoIf your captain feels the need to be drunk, you’ve probably made a few mistakes before it got to that point.
- caspii 6y agoYeah, I agree I'm being slightly flippant. But it's just a side-project and I will continue late night coding with a glass of wine. I find it hugely enjoyable. I would have a different mind-set if I was writing software for power stations as a professional.
- alistairSH 6y agoBut it's just a side-project and I will continue late night coding with a glass of wine. Normally, this would be fine. But, it appears the site has paying members. Presumably, it's not "just a side-project" to them. You owe them better than tinkering with prod while tipsy.
- hnlmorg 6y agoI don't think that's fair. We've all had occasions from time to time when we've had a drink at lunch time or even had to do emergency work in the evening after having a drink. The bigger issue is the lack of guardrails to protect against accidental damage. This is also a common trait for hobby projects (after all, it's more fun to hack stuff together) but hopefully the maintainer will use this experience as a sobering reminder (pun intended) to put some guardrails in place now.
- murillians 6y agoI think it's just a joke
- danielh 6y agoAccording to the about page, "the employees" consist of one guy working on it in his spare time.
- caspii 6y agoI have no employees. I only have myself to blame