Lewis Cowles (He/Him, They,Them,Theirs)

I've been a contractor for years. I've made a fair number of mistakes, but eventually settled into patterns like canary'ing (apply changes to a throwaway server first, then health-checking).

I once deleted the MySQL data directory because I was tired and a forum told me it would make MySQL faster. Btw thanks trolls, for giving me a reason to work more reasonable hours.

The worst I've seen from another contractor was from a former Yahoo Employee I still occasionally work with. I only know they used to work for Yahoo, because they told me "don't worry, I fixed your code for you", then told me when I asked them not to modify my code "I've forgotten more since we last spoke than you know" or other snotty words to that effect. I was not very happy.

I know it's wrong, but I was so happy to learn they had wiped out 48 hours of server time, and I was asked to fix due to them being smarter than me. The lesson is that we all make mistakes, and that big company success doesn't mean you're never wrong, and it's a good idea to not climb too high.

Work out a process before the disaster, like backups of mysql data folders or committed code to a repo. Then it's muscle memory to the rescue and you get to work normal hours too!

Modern libraries are about a lot more than the mere transfer of knowledge (a task the internet struggles with doing correctly I might add).

While many governments are "going digital" a move I fully support, libraries are becoming the only places some of their citizens can access essential services.

The search by author I found interesting, but I'm not sure that I've come across library software that didn't have that anyway.

I'm very interested in libraries, and their potential future. I'd love to know what you think could generally be done to improve libraries to meet the needs of a digital age, rather than extinguishing them.