John Gallagher

But true agility is you do a little bit of work, you develop a feature, you show the customer, they say, not quite right. Go back, adjust it. Closer, but still not quite right. But if you ask them to describe it exactly right from the beginning, it doesn't align with what they want at all. You need to show them, and it's only by showing them that you get feedback.

But true agility is you do a little bit of work, you develop a feature, you show the customer, they say, not quite right. Go back, adjust it. Closer, but still not quite right. But if you ask them to describe it exactly right from the beginning, it doesn't align with what they want at all. You need to show them, and it's only by showing them that you get feedback.

And the same is true for ourselves. It's only by looking at the graphs and the logs that I realize that actually isn't what I wanted to begin with, or it is, or I'm onto something there. And so I keep then sort of I've used the graph. Maybe it was unusable. Maybe I couldn't query the parameter. Maybe there's all sorts of things that might be happening there. So then the last stage is improved.

And the same is true for ourselves. It's only by looking at the graphs and the logs that I realize that actually isn't what I wanted to begin with, or it is, or I'm onto something there. And so I keep then sort of I've used the graph. Maybe it was unusable. Maybe I couldn't query the parameter. Maybe there's all sorts of things that might be happening there. So then the last stage is improved.

And so from improve, you can go back to the very beginning, ask a different question, or maybe you just want to iterate on the instrumentation a bit, deploy it again. Oh, that's more like it. Okay. So now we know the token expiry. What's the next question we want to ask? Well, when did the user actually hit the site? Was it after the token expiry or before? Hmm. Okay.

And so from improve, you can go back to the very beginning, ask a different question, or maybe you just want to iterate on the instrumentation a bit, deploy it again. Oh, that's more like it. Okay. So now we know the token expiry. What's the next question we want to ask? Well, when did the user actually hit the site? Was it after the token expiry or before? Hmm. Okay.

Sounds like an obvious question, but maybe it's after, which would indicate the token really had expired. Oh, it's before. Huh? How could it be expired when it was before? Oh, hang on. What's the time zone of the token? Now we're getting into it, right? So you log the time zone. Holy cow, the time zone of the token is out of sync with the time zone of the user. That's what it is.

Sounds like an obvious question, but maybe it's after, which would indicate the token really had expired. Oh, it's before. Huh? How could it be expired when it was before? Oh, hang on. What's the time zone of the token? Now we're getting into it, right? So you log the time zone. Holy cow, the time zone of the token is out of sync with the time zone of the user. That's what it is.

But as with everything else, I would say if you're really not feeling any pain, don't bother. Just don't bother. I'm not into kind of – I'm not really interested in telling people what they should be doing or could be doing. I mean, goodness me, we hear enough of that in engineering, don't we? You should really learn a language every year. You should be Blair. You should be Blair.

But as with everything else, I would say if you're really not feeling any pain, don't bother. Just don't bother. I'm not into kind of – I'm not really interested in telling people what they should be doing or could be doing. I mean, goodness me, we hear enough of that in engineering, don't we? You should really learn a language every year. You should be Blair. You should be Blair.

I'm sick of it, absolutely sick of all these gurus telling me what to do and what I should be learning and what I – And very few of them talk about, well, what's the benefit to me? And in order for me to do anything, in order for me to change as a human being in any way, learn anything, I have to feel the pain of it. If you're not feeling the pain, don't bother.

I'm sick of it, absolutely sick of all these gurus telling me what to do and what I should be learning and what I – And very few of them talk about, well, what's the benefit to me? And in order for me to do anything, in order for me to change as a human being in any way, learn anything, I have to feel the pain of it. If you're not feeling the pain, don't bother.

But if you are feeling the pain, if deploys are really glitchy, if you keep asking, for me, the kicker is if I keep asking questions I don't have the answer to, That's a concern. And if they're just minor, oh, like, why did I wake up 10 minutes late today? Who cares? It's not important.

But if you are feeling the pain, if deploys are really glitchy, if you keep asking, for me, the kicker is if I keep asking questions I don't have the answer to, That's a concern. And if they're just minor, oh, like, why did I wake up 10 minutes late today? Who cares? It's not important.

But if the site's gone down for the fourth time this month, and every time the site goes down, we lose at least five grand, 10 grand, maybe even more. And even worse, every single time the site does go down, we just kind of get it back up more by luck than good judgment. This kind of feeling of, oh, we kind of got away with it that time. That's OK.

But if the site's gone down for the fourth time this month, and every time the site goes down, we lose at least five grand, 10 grand, maybe even more. And even worse, every single time the site does go down, we just kind of get it back up more by luck than good judgment. This kind of feeling of, oh, we kind of got away with it that time. That's OK.

I know there was this weird thing and it's still not really figured that one out, but that's OK. We'll just put it in the backlog. Um, it's the operational risk. You've got to decide, are you comfortable with that operational risk or not? Is it big enough? And in my experience, you've kind of got to hit rock bottom with this stuff.

I know there was this weird thing and it's still not really figured that one out, but that's OK. We'll just put it in the backlog. Um, it's the operational risk. You've got to decide, are you comfortable with that operational risk or not? Is it big enough? And in my experience, you've kind of got to hit rock bottom with this stuff.

As I did, there were loads and loads of bugs that I could have investigated and added logging for and fixed, but you know, it's pushing a boulder up a hill. It's not actually worth it. And it was only when it reached my threshold of pain. I was like, you know what? I have to do something about this now. This is just ridiculous. We're professional people.

As I did, there were loads and loads of bugs that I could have investigated and added logging for and fixed, but you know, it's pushing a boulder up a hill. It's not actually worth it. And it was only when it reached my threshold of pain. I was like, you know what? I have to do something about this now. This is just ridiculous. We're professional people.