There comes a time in every developers life when the shit hits the fan, when production servers stops responding, when managers comes screaming about the next Log4Shell vulnerability or just another Thursday when things seems to go wrong. Then you need to have your toolkit to manage this kind of situations ready.
What’s in Your Crisis Toolkit?
There are a couple of things that should be in every developers toolbox. Most of them an non-tangible, like the ability to read a log, effectivly search the code and maintain a clear head under pressure.
But there’s one thing — a very tangible thing — that can also help you in a crisis: Two Cookies.
These need to be of the type that require some chewing. No soft ones, no creamy Oreos, no chocolate. Think oat cookies with raisins or ship’s biscuits. That is what you are looking for. Cookies that can stay in your bag for months without spoiling.
So what to do with the cookies and how do they help with solving a crisis situation?
The Two-Cookie Crisis Process
- Get your pack of cookies and open it
- While you are listening to the problem being explained, eat the first one.
- Chew thoroughly. And since you can’t talk while you are eating, think about what you hear and what information you are missing.
- When you are done, talk. Tell whomever need to listen what information you need and send them away to get it.
- Eat the second cookie. This has two main advantages. The first one being that you can’t talk again, so you have time to think about what you are going to do with the information that comes back to you. The second is that you have gotten between 150-240 kCal of energy into your body, and that is a good thing, because you don’t know when you will have time to eat the next time.
Why Cookies?
To be honest, you don’t really need the cookies, but they sure do help and make you feel better in a time of crisis. They create a moment of calm, they give you energy and force you to think before speaking. It gives you a little bit more poise and make you radiate a sense of calmeness needed in a time of crisis.
And let’s face it: cookies always makes everything a little better.
