1/

time for a little bit of a bragging thread

2/

in hunter gatherer societies, male speed, strength and dexterity peaks in the mid 20s, but hunting success peaks closer to 40

the difference is decades of acquired wisdom about all sorts of tiny things
3/

In infoworker economies I think something similar happens. Fluid intelligence peaks in the 20s or so, but graybeards have seen all manner of complicated Charlie Foxtrots and can start to predict where they're going to happen.
4/

I build this complicated app that communicates with Vast Third Party via three different APIs, a mix of XML, JSON, etc.

Two of these APIs are outgoing / push (from my PoV), one is inbound.

Three weeks ago Third Party pinged us and placed an order. We responded "ok".
5/

Then, apparently, Third Party pinged us again and placed a second order... and is now upset because second order didn't ship.

We have no record of a second order in our system, and we don't have enough inventory to fulfill it.
6/

This was three weeks ago. How the heck do we debug this? Our server has restarted since then, and the LACK of an order obviously doesn't have an order ID in our system.

So Big Co is going to yell at us for dropping a valid order.

UGH.
7/

EXCEPT ...

I saw EXACTLY this Charlie Foxtrot coming a year ago.
8/

Which is why I maintain a database table of every incoming XML request, paired with our response XML, the third party customer record (if any), and the order record (if any).
9/

...along with tools that let us search this table.

So I wrote Huge Third Party an email yesterday saying "I see that at "15 Dec 2020 18:58:02 UTC +00:00 you sent to us, we responded . Please note in our response No inventory.
10/

...Given that in your documentation Error Code 411 always means "no inventory", and your system should assume that the order attempt failed, it is my belief that we responded correctly and your system is in error.

Please advise.
11/

P.S. The unique identifier ID in your message was XYZ and our response was QRS.
12/

Feels good, man.
13/

I'm reminded of two stories from when I was first dating @LibertyFarmNH.

One time we were out on a date, and the truck didn't start (turns out alternated died). She said "oh no!". I shrugged, went to the cargo area, got the [ charged ] jumper pack, and started the truck.
14/

Another time we were exploring rural areas, the paved road turned into a dirt road, and the dirt road got ruts, and we hit something with a BANG and then we heard the muffler dragging on the ground

I stopped, got the tool kit, removed a broken bracket, and used bailing wire
15/

You can predict 99% of the problems that are going to happen, and plan ahead to mitigate them.
16/

Counterpoint to @FormerlyFormer 's "male strengths vs female strengths" threads:

youth strengths vs elder strengths
17/

100% agreed

https://t.co/7Z6EbAo3wn
18/

BigCo responded.

"I looked in our system; I see our message to you, placing the order. Problem at your end."

ok, BigCo, can you tell me what order ID # we gave you, and what our message said specifically?

"there was no order ID. Your response was 'error: no inventory' "
19/
20/

wife responds to my email above

("Woman! Fetch my excruciator!")

More from For later read

The common understanding of propaganda is that it is intended to brainwash the masses. Supposedly, people get exposed to the same message repeatedly and over time come to believe in whatever nonsense authoritarians want them to believe /1

And yet authoritarians often broadcast silly, unpersuasive propaganda.

Political scientist Haifeng Huang writes that the purpose of propaganda is not to brainwash people, but to instill fear in them /2


When people are bombarded with propaganda everywhere they look, they are reminded of the strength of the regime.

The vast amount of resources authoritarians spend to display their message in every corner of the public square is a costly demonstration of their power /3

In fact, the overt silliness of authoritarian propaganda is part of the point. Propaganda is designed to be silly so that people can instantly recognize it when they see it


Propaganda is intended to instill fear in people, not brainwash them.

The message is: You might not believe in pro-regime values or attitudes. But we will make sure you are too frightened to do anything about it.
I shared this on my FB page and asked, can ya really blame him?

I was half kidding. I also assumed someone would think of what I did pretty quickly and waiting for the comment to mention what I assumed was obvious.

The timing. I was sure someone else had thought of it.


But no one did. 20+ comments in people discussed the morality or bad sense or libertarian perspectives. Someone even said I’m thinking about doing that. No one said what I thought was obvious. Have you thought of it? Is it obvious to you?

Here’s a clue...recognize it?


How about this?


The author discusses it with Mike Wallace in 1958

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This is NONSENSE. The people who take photos with their books on instagram are known to be voracious readers who graciously take time to review books and recommend them to their followers. Part of their medium is to take elaborate, beautiful photos of books. Die mad, Guardian.


THEY DO READ THEM, YOU JUDGY, RACOON-PICKED TRASH BIN


If you come for Bookstagram, i will fight you.

In appreciation, here are some of my favourite bookstagrams of my books: (photos by lit_nerd37, mybookacademy, bookswrotemystory, and scorpio_books)
Oh my Goodness!!!

I might have a panic attack due to excitement!!

Read this thread to the end...I just had an epiphany and my mind is blown. Actually, more than blown. More like OBLITERATED! This is the thing! This is the thing that will blow the entire thing out of the water!


Has this man been concealing his true identity?

Is this man a supposed 'dead' Seal Team Six soldier?

Witness protection to be kept safe until the right moment when all will be revealed?!

Who ELSE is alive that may have faked their death/gone into witness protection?


Were "golden tickets" inside the envelopes??


Are these "golden tickets" going to lead to their ultimate undoing?

Review crumbs on the board re: 'gold'.


#SEALTeam6 Trump re-tweeted this.