Netflix's distributed tracing system

Here is another great blog posting on the netflix technology blog about their interesting distributed tracing system. The low-cost storage implementation and intentionally small sampling rate for non-critical microservices are interesting cost optimizations.

StackHawk for DevSecOps

This demonstration of StackHawk is a very compelling plug that makes StackHawk look like a great tool for developers to build security into their code as early and conveniently as possible.

The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson

I found this book to be an interesting, entertaining utopian very-long epic with some interesting characters and long historical perspectives.  I prefer more optimistic post-scarcity utopias but this one was not terrible and Anderson explores the dream of immortality reasonably well. 3/5 Stars.  Not great but ok.

Paper recycling increases Carbon emission

It's interesting that despite our passion and large-scale efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle, paper recycling is "not the lever" we should pull, other than preventing the downstream effects of paper in landfills and the resulting methane.

Accelerate by N Forsgren, J Humble, G Kim

I was a little skeptical when I started reading this book, especially after reading Martin Fowler's lukewarm recommendation in the preface.  Surveys and correlations sounded much too soft for my "scientific method" & objective evidence approach to understanding phenomena.  However the authors did win me over in the second half of the book by explaining in detail how psychographics has evolved to become a hard, predictive science.  So I do recommend reading it in detail and referring to the prescriptive advice.

The fluff in the beginning is why we should care, the importance of culture, and the need for better practices.  Then the book goes into the most-important measurements, including deployment frequency, lead times, recovery (roll-back) times, and time between failures -- the normal duty cycle of machines we know and use from the 19th century.

The next few chapters go into measuring and nudging culture and technical patterns and practices. What I love about the measurements and practices is that they force teams to minimize the waste of antipattern practices such as tickets, manual work, manual testing, and monolithic security / compliance / ops organizations -- the developer experience becomes much better and the obvious bottlenecks become more pronounced to leaders.

Then the book talks about sustainable work (preventing burn out), employee satisfaction, team identity, engagement, leadership, coaching, and management.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it.  5/5 Stars.

A Window into Time by Peter F Hamilton

Short, interesting and light, 3/5 Stars.

Object oriented approach can be harmful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRTfhkiAqPw

This video is a fantastic and withering attack on the obfuscation, inefficiency, and poor maintainability caused by our gratuitous  over-use of the object-oriented approach to everything.  In many cases, traditional procedural programming is more appropriate.  5/5 Stars, must watch!

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

Very good writing, emotional, immersive, and gripping. The tragedies are very poignant and depressing but not very uplifting, unfortunately.  3/5 Stars.

A sense of Urgency by John P Kotter

Despite the author's choice of case studies, the research, concepts, and prescriptive guidance are quite good.  The author chose 20th century global-100 manufacturing conglomerates and the cultures in each case assumed only CEOs and C-level officers made any decisions or did any work.  Middle managers and other wage slaves were not considered.  The details and nuances of distinguishing anxiety and false-urgency from the positive energy of true urgency were great. Similarly the author's analysis of "every crisis is an opportunity" is very good.  And finally, the details and prescription of behaviors and processes are valuable.  I do recommend the book; consider listening to the audio version at 1.5X or 2X speed.  3/5 Stars.