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ABEND dump #18

Welcome to the ABEND dump! Here are the most interesting things I’ve been reading lately. If you want to know the origin of the ABEND dump, I've got you covered. Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Thinking TIL about Chesterton’s Fence concept, thanks to my manager, Liam McAndrew. The lesson of Chesterton’s Fence is what already exists likely serves purposes that are not immediately obvious. … The original reason might not have been a good one, and even if it was, things might have changed, but we need to be aware of it. Otherwise, we risk unleashing unintended consequences that spread like ripples on a pond, causing damage for years. We see plenty of that in software engineering. I learned quite a while ago that we should not remove something from a codebase unless we can prove that it is useless. Now I have a link to share if someone asks. IBM z17: Earthquake test Seeing how the IBM z17 stays up and running through an 8.3 magnitude earthquake is quite amazing. Celebrating Git's 20th anniversary with creator Linus Torvalds GitLab celebrated the 20th anniversary of git by interviewing Linus Torvalds. The git project exemplifies how we don’t need to make a gigantic tool with hundreds of features — at least, that was not what git was back then. I love purpose-built tools! I’m all for the Unix philosophy way. 7 Cognitive Biases Silently Sabotaging Your Career This is the first time I’m exposed to the survivorship bias. I wonder how many times I made the wrong assumptions considering this.

Apr 19, 2025 - 20:03

Welcome to the ABEND dump!

Here are the most interesting things I’ve been reading lately.

If you want to know the origin of the ABEND dump, I've got you covered.

Chesterton’s Fence: A Lesson in Thinking

TIL about Chesterton’s Fence concept, thanks to my manager, Liam McAndrew.

The lesson of Chesterton’s Fence is what already exists likely serves purposes that are not immediately obvious.
…
The original reason might not have been a good one, and even if it was, things might have changed, but we need to be aware of it. Otherwise, we risk unleashing unintended consequences that spread like ripples on a pond, causing damage for years.

We see plenty of that in software engineering.

I learned quite a while ago that we should not remove something from a codebase unless we can prove that it is useless. Now I have a link to share if someone asks.

IBM z17: Earthquake test

Seeing how the IBM z17 stays up and running through an 8.3 magnitude earthquake is quite amazing.

Celebrating Git's 20th anniversary with creator Linus Torvalds

GitLab celebrated the 20th anniversary of git by interviewing Linus Torvalds.

The git project exemplifies how we don’t need to make a gigantic tool with hundreds of features — at least, that was not what git was back then.

I love purpose-built tools! I’m all for the Unix philosophy way.

7 Cognitive Biases Silently Sabotaging Your Career

This is the first time I’m exposed to the survivorship bias. I wonder how many times I made the wrong assumptions considering this.