30 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
# Taking the hit
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- **期号**: SRE Weekly Issue #317（2022-04-10）
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- **作者**: Lorin Hochstein
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- **链接**: https://surfingcomplexity.blog/2022/04/09/taking-the-hit/
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## 简介
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I’ve done this before without even meaning to, and looking back on it, it was a great strategy.
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> When you know that your work will be reviewed by an expert, it’s better to be clear and wrong than vague.
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## 正文
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Here’s a scenario I frequently encounter: I’m working on writing up an incident or an [OOPS](https://surfingcomplexity.blog/2021/11/21/oops-writeups/). I’ve already interviewed key experts on the system, and based on those interviews, I understand the implementation details well enough to explain the failure mode in writing.
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But, when I go to write down the explanation, I discover that I don’t actually have a good understanding of all of the relevant details. I could go back and ask clarifying questions, but I worry that I’ll have to do this multiple times, and I want to avoid taking up too much of other people’s time.
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I’m now faced with a choice when describing the failure mode. I can either:
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(a) Be intentionally vague about the parts that I don’t understand well.
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(b) Make my best guess about the implementation details for the parts I’m not sure about.
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Whenever I go with option (b), I always get some of the details incorrect. This becomes painfully clear to me when I show a draft to the key experts, and they tell me straight-out, “Lorin, this section is *wrong*.”
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I call choosing option (b) ***taking the hit*** because, well, I hate the feeling of being wrong about something. However, I always try to go with this approach because this maximizes both my own learning and (hopefully) the learning of the readers. I take the hit. When you know that your work will be reviewed by an expert, it’s better to be clear and wrong than vague.
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## One thought on “Taking the hit”
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