Jack: Hi there! Do we have some operational problems?
Max: Hi! There is a known issue with service A depending on resource B, which fails randomly. What about focusing on this problem?
Jack: Sounds fine, how could we be sure that we are improving in this area?
Max: I think that we could measure all HTTP 500 that are related to resource B?
Jack: What? What’s the point in measuring all HTTP 500?! This makes no sense at all!
Max: I mean we can measure all events that match the following conditions simultaneously: a HTTP 500 occurred and the root cause of this server error indicates a problem with resource B.
Jack: Aha, that sounds fine. Let’s get the money.
The example above shows a situation, where Jack stopped listening in the middle of the sentence. His response to the first proposition was not based on all data available, he had some similar discussions in the past and simply retrieved from memory the most matching scenario.
What happened here? Let’s use the perspective from “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. A short introduction: according to this book we have two ways of thinking: fast one (System 1) and slow one (System 2). The faster, System 1, is something that does not require much energy, allows multitasking and uses what we (unconsciously) assume or remember. The slower, System 2, is single-threaded, requires focus, even effort, and consumes a significant amount of energy.
It sounds like in the fictional situation above System 1 was responsible for the initial assessment. More elaborate proposition, that explicitly stated two conditions, preparing for the next part of the sentence, with less common words, seemed to trigger System 2 into action, with full analysis and reasonable evaluation.
How could we avoid such a situation at all? There are several options, one of them is really sweet. Literally sweet: glucose is an important factor affecting our ability to focus, to self-control. And we can recharge it easily.
So, before the next meeting ensure there is something sweet in the conference room!
