Sometimes things just go wrong. No matter how hard you try (or don’t) you need to expect the unexpected. Software and systems inevitable break and go down. And when a system goes down, it will inevitably go down at the least convenient time.
The key is testing, redundancy, and back-up. You can’t prepare for all of the potential problems. But you can prepare for some.
My latest technical problem happened right here. Something went wrong with the code that runs this website. Technical support offered some mumbo jumbo on what I could do. I only know just enough html and css to get myself in trouble. I tried a few things, but they each failed to work. I was in way over my head.
I could have spent hours and hours poring through the error logs and files. Or I could have hired someone who knew what they were doing to help out. I don’t have the time or money to do that.
That left me with one choice. Nuke it and start over. Fortunately, I have a system that runs regular back ups. And it worked.
The website’s design is still a mess. The problem appears to have resided somewhere in the old design. That can be fixed eventually. The key is that the data is still intact.
Lesson Learned. Prepare, back-up, and test. I think there is even an SEC rule on the topic.
I end with a recent cartoon from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal on the stock market, blame, and reward.
