Into the unknown

I spent much of the day today debugging a group project, mainly with people who were several thousand miles away, working on fixing experimental software I didn’t know, on an operating system I didn’t know, running on hardware I didn’t know, using internet protocols I didn’t know.

All of this required an impressively large variety of debugging tools that I didn’t know. After many hours of work, we think the end may be in sight — it feels near enough to touch — but we’re not completely sure yet.

Oddly enough, yesterday I saw a preview for that new “based on a real story” movie about people attempting to scale Mount Everest. A group of hardy humans climbing so far up that the air is actually too thin for humans to breathe. I know what you’re thinking — what could go possibly wrong?

I remember thinking to myself, as I watched that preview, “Who in their right mind would attempt something so crazy that it was nearly guaranteed to end badly?”

After today, I feel a little more sympathetic.

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