M&Ms: Single Point of Failure
Adding redundancies to our lives in the 90th edition.
The sans pareil of star destroyers is blown up by a single proton torpedo.
The iconic Death Star from Star Wars is an impenetrable a floating metal planet. But after watching Star Wars, generations of us laughed at The Galactic Empire for being stupid enough to construct such a supermassive flying fortress with a single point of failure.
In software engineering, a single point of failure is a weak link in the system that could bring down everything, like that two-meter exhaust port that leads directly to the main reactor of the Death Star.
When building large-scale distributed systems, software engineers go to great lengths and have lots of ceremonies to avoid single points of failure.
And yet, even though engineers understand this single-point-of-failure concept well, many seem to live their lives with this fatal flaw in it.
If all of your livelihood comes from a single employer and you could be fired at any point, like many were this week, you have a single point of failure in your life. Its best to address this.
Even if you have the nicest employer in the world, like Google who was widely regarded as that, until they let go of about 12k people by locking them out via email this week, supermassive things like entire industries can still be disrupted and collapse. Sometimes seemingly overnight.
But the good thing is a single point of failure is easy to address once we know what it is.
One way we can solve single points of failure in system design is to build redundancies. Redundancies don't need to replace the original system in scope and scale to be effective. They just need to be good enough while we take more action.
Similarly, you don't need to replace your entire salary in new income streams to feel safe from a layoff. Even a little bit will give you peace of mind. Knowing you can survive because you can always cut back is a big win.
I have been fortunate to diversify out of bits into atoms little by little; as I made money in tech, I bought rental real estate and created a new income stream—a formula I plan to continue doubling down on as long as possible because it works. Now my rental income is not as high as my big corporate salary was, but it's enough for peace of mind. And you don't need to do it through real estate; you can do it through dividends, other boring businesses, a product you make, software, and so on.
Of course, in Star Wars Rogue One, we learn that The Empire wasn't that dumb, but they got duped. Galen Erso, the architect, created the Death Star's single point of failure on purpose, allowing it to be exploited later.
I could argue that employers similarly architect a single point of failure into your life so that it could be easily exploited later. You needing them for your livelihood, combined with a healthy fear of being fired, is the perfect single point of failure to keep you on your toes.
Imagine what that Death Star would've done if it didn't have that single point of failure. The series would've been over.
You are that Death Star; now imagine what you could do if you get rid of that single point of failure.
Four Posts on the Layoffs: 16 years, 17 years, 20 years.
These posts tell a story of their own.
I feel for these people who gave it all to their firm only to be slapped in the face on the way out.
16.5 years and all you get is an email.
And this is from one of the nicest companies in tech whose motto used to be “don’t be evil."
17.5 years and found out via badge not working.
20 years and found out via an email.
Two Unrelated Tweet: Low-Tech Self-Checkout, Housing Market
Jacob, a farmer from Australia, shared how he has been able to run a self check out butchery with no employees that's open 24/7 for two years with zero theft.
The fascinating thing about this is that Amazon self-checkout stores with advanced computer vision cost about $1.5 billion per store to deploy. There is so much sophisticated hardware in each one. They are mostly still in beta and in a few locations. Target, Walmart, and almost every major retailer are trying to mimic that technology and spending billions to do it.
And Jacob, a farmer, has been able to do it with simple tech and a few grand.
And the kicker is before anyone becomes a member to go and buy from that unmanned butchery, they have to go and get a tour of his farm first and understand his values.
Amazing what we can accomplish if we think out of the box a little bit and don't overcomplicate things.
Housing Market inventory remains stubbornly low across the U.S.
Two Memes: Iteration, Funny Math
A post poking fun at the iteration happening in Big Tech.
Startups are getting desperate.
As always, thank you for reading!
-Louie
P.S. you can reply to this email; it will get to me, and I will read it.
What a terrific post this week Louie. Wondering how you reconcile not having a single point of failure with the need to have a single point of focus to succeed, as in the "One Thing" philosophy. I ask because after 40 years as an entrepreneur I have learned the need for both, diversification as well as commitment and focus, and it's a persistent, seemingly unsolvable challenge to juggle that many balls. It seems to me this is the perennial pain for every self-employed person. I was/am a professional speaker. That's been my sole income for a long time and pandemics have now been revealed as the undefended exhaust shoot built into the meeting industry. The covid years as a result were financially eviscerating for me. Now I'm back to being on the road with gigs, but looking to develop online income streams on the side. The effort to eliminate the single point of failure, however, spreads me so far and wide and thin that I feel like I am failing everywhere. I don't think I am saying anything unique or new, just wondering how you personally hold this dichotomy. For me, I just accept that it's hard, try not to beat myself up about it, and keep going.
"Of course, in Star Wars Rogue One, we learn that The Empire wasn't that dumb, but they got duped." This line had me rolling LOL.
Also, tech roasts are the best roasts.