Week 2 Story: The Foolish Programmer
Once upon an update, a programmer released just a few new lines of code before going home for the day. This simple change was something very minor meant to speed up every process around the company.
The next day, one application after another began to fail.
As the failures spread, so did panic throughout the office.
"Our system is down!" shouted an accountant.
"So is ours!" shouted someone trying to transfer data.
Unbeknownst to the programmer, his small change had accidentally cut all processes short, and since he had left, gone home, and slept since then, it didn't cross his mind.
"Everything was working just fine yesterday!" was being echoed throughout the office.
IT was scrambling trying to fix the issue, looking at everything that went through the system that morning. Maybe someone put in a bad file. What if there was a virus? Even the IT guys couldn't figure out who could've messed up this bad. It couldn't have been them, of course.
Eventually, the office had fallen into such a panic that the owner of the company made an appearance.
"Settle down, settle down" she said in a confident tone.
"Now I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation to all this."
At the sight of the woman almost never seen, everyone froze as she began to ask the logical questions.
Question by question, she narrowed down what could've happened, eventually leading to the programmer's small update.
"Oh, no way that could be it, I only put in a few lines of code before the end of the day" said the programmer defensively.
Upon further inspection, they saw he had simply implemented the change at the wrong place in the code.
After fixing the issue, all was back to normal, well almost back to normal. It would be a long time before that programmer would stop hearing of his slight mistake that caused all this panic.
Author's Note: Based on The Foolish, Timid Rabbit by Ellen C. Babbitt, a story of a rabbit who believes the world is ending from a small circumstance unbeknownst to him. As panic spread to larger and larger groups, it is eventually the lion (in this case the owner) who using logic to figure out what is actually wrong and return the peace.
The next day, one application after another began to fail.
As the failures spread, so did panic throughout the office.
"Our system is down!" shouted an accountant.
"So is ours!" shouted someone trying to transfer data.
Unbeknownst to the programmer, his small change had accidentally cut all processes short, and since he had left, gone home, and slept since then, it didn't cross his mind.
"Everything was working just fine yesterday!" was being echoed throughout the office.
IT was scrambling trying to fix the issue, looking at everything that went through the system that morning. Maybe someone put in a bad file. What if there was a virus? Even the IT guys couldn't figure out who could've messed up this bad. It couldn't have been them, of course.
Eventually, the office had fallen into such a panic that the owner of the company made an appearance.
"Settle down, settle down" she said in a confident tone.
"Now I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation to all this."
At the sight of the woman almost never seen, everyone froze as she began to ask the logical questions.
Question by question, she narrowed down what could've happened, eventually leading to the programmer's small update.
"Oh, no way that could be it, I only put in a few lines of code before the end of the day" said the programmer defensively.
Upon further inspection, they saw he had simply implemented the change at the wrong place in the code.
After fixing the issue, all was back to normal, well almost back to normal. It would be a long time before that programmer would stop hearing of his slight mistake that caused all this panic.
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| The panicking worker I imagine in this scenario |
Author's Note: Based on The Foolish, Timid Rabbit by Ellen C. Babbitt, a story of a rabbit who believes the world is ending from a small circumstance unbeknownst to him. As panic spread to larger and larger groups, it is eventually the lion (in this case the owner) who using logic to figure out what is actually wrong and return the peace.
I also wrote my story based on The Foolish, Timid Rabbit, so it is good to see another version of it that you wrote! I really specifically like the way you incorporated something so modern into your story, such as programming, as I did too. I think it fit really well into the plot of your story, and you based the storytelling around it very well and it not only added to the element of the original story, but it also kept the sense of the original version as well, which hit really well with the idea of the assignment!
ReplyDeleteReid,
ReplyDeleteI really like your version of this story. I've read a few others from our classmates, but I think yours has to be my favorite. It fits the story perfectly and has a nice creative, personal touch that clearly relates to you specifically. I'm looking forward to reading some of your other stories to see how you make a perfect version of those stories too.