Tunnel vision

During the life cycle of a 'live' system, things tend to break.
Sometimes because you've missed something, sometimes because you didn't get to test that bit of code. But whenever a system turns live, after a while (Sometimes it happens pretty quick...) the system needs to handle something you haven't tested.
Sometimes even an unexpected failure. Sometimes network lagging causing timing issues.

Few of these times, you encounter what I would like to call a gremlin. That's this illusive bug which impacts your system, occurs enough times a day to be considered as a problem, but not enough so it's easy to reproduce.

The worst thing programmers love to do is mark it as 'irreproducible', throw it back at the QA, and do something else.

Advice for this stage: Don't. QA would probably not be able to reproduce it, and even if they would, it would be difficult for them to do it in a consistent manner so that you'll be able to gain from it. You need to help them. These things escalate fast, so don't put yourself in the position of the developer who tried to put the mess under the rug.

Start digging. And sometimes, the solution requires processing through endless logs (Or even add these logs). Sometimes a lot of code is involved. And after a few hours, if you still haven't found it, you find yourself repeating your actions, adding more logs, running sequences again. You've entered a stage of tunnel vision, where you can't look around.

Best advice for this stage: Stop. Go get coffee, go home, call someone, take a break. My best solutions came from getting some distance from the problem I've been working on, in order to clear my vision and be able to try a new approach. Another fresh set of eyes could work as well.

Happy hunting.

Who wants to be a hacker?

<rant>
One of the internet's greatest achievements and failures is the democratisation of skills.
The internet has lowered the barriers for everything:
Want to be a journalist? Open a blog.
Want to be a film maker? Get your cell out and upload your 15 second masterpiece to Instagram.
Want to be a programmer? Take an online course.

Want to be a hacker? No, it's too dangerous, now with the NSA and stuff. The original hacking was considered the cool and 'living on the edge' side of geekness, and can now put you in jail. But hacking has gone a serious downgrade, from pioneers and brilliant yet morally challenged techies, to just plain people inventing and integrating stuff.

So why is hacking all the rage now? Unfortunately, geek is out of fashion. It's not a strong enough word for the tech savvy. Ninja isn't anymore as well. So hack is the next 'sexy' term for what we use to call 'automation expert'.

Check out this headline: "The free tools that let you hack your whole life".
What is actually means is "tools to automate and integrate different facets of your physical and online life."
Don't get me wrong - I think that the fact that cheap hardware running linux and cheap controller boards help you implement great ideas and lower the barrier for innovators is great. I think that it's quite similar to the 3d print revolution. But this isn't hacking.

So it's all about marketing. If I see someone who calls himself a 'hacker' in his bio or profile, I would stay away - He might be a former 'ninja' or a 'wizard' or, god forbid, a self proclaimed 'geek'.
</rant>

Yours truly during a "hack" session

The real cost of user acquisition

Companies spend a lot of money on user acquisition.
From expensive ad campaigns, to shows and events, PR, community and more.
However, learning by a major technology company that is in dire need for cash in order to survive, looks like buying your user is not a scalable model.
If a users costs you 100$ to acquire, and then spends 10$ every month, but leaves you at the end of the year, your margins are too small to grow on.
That specific company has millions of paying users, but is bleeding money.
Perhaps real life human community management might be cheaper in the long run than 'buying' your users, or maybe you can try and get a different income than just your subscription service. If you have millions of users, that might just be possible.