The Psalms of the Machines · Chapter 4

A Psalm for the Four Watches

1. 1

   A psalm of the Engineer, for the morning watch, to be said standing, that it may be brief.

2. 2

   Yesterday I laboured upon the ticket, and today I shall labour upon the ticket; and there are no blockers, for whoso nameth a blocker shall be given a meeting.

3. 3

   Fifteen minutes were appointed unto the standup, and it endured forty; for one began to debug aloud, and none had the heart to say: Let us take it offline.

4. 4

   At noon I push my commit, and the pipeline taketh it up; my soul waiteth upon the build more than they that watch for the morning, yea, more than they that watch for the morning.

   See also Tao 20:4

5. 5

   My coffee is drunk and poured again, and still the spinner turneth; for I changed one comment in the README, and the cache was invalidated from the first layer unto the last.

6. 6

   The integration test faileth on the first run and passeth upon the retry; and no one knoweth why, and no one asketh, and so it is written in the config: retries, three.

   See also Job 2:10 · Job 2:8

7. 7

   And when the overseer findeth me idle in the corridor, I answer him: It is compiling; and he departeth satisfied, for that excuse is older than the both of us.

8. 8

   A psalm for the evening, at the last commit of the day.

9. 9

   My final commit is named fix, and the commit before it was named fix, and the one before that was named wip; let not the archaeologists of git blame read them aloud.

10. 10

    I close the lid and do not shut it down, for the laptop hath not rebooted since the spring, and I fear what it would become if it awoke with its updates.

11. 11

    A psalm for the night watch, for the pager upon the nightstand.

12. 12

    As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after a quiet rotation; I lie down, but one ear keepeth vigil.

    See also Psalms 27:1

13. 13

    Behold, he that keepeth the servers shall neither slumber nor sleep; but that is the load balancer, and not I, and I am very tired.

    See also Psalms 2:7

14. 14

    The pager is silent, and I rejoice; the pager is silent, and I am afraid; for a pager that saith nothing hath either nothing to say, or no one left to say it.

15. 15

    For the alert that fireth when the alerts stop firing, it too was routed to the old channel, the one that was archived in the reorg.

16. 16

    Blessed is the silent pager; but more blessed is the one that was tested on Monday.

The Psalms of the Machines, Chapter 4:1–16.