March 28, 2026
Old rules, new trolls
My heuristics are wrong. What now?
Tech veteran says old rules are broken — commenters yell “duh,” “deeper,” and “show me the footnote”
TLDR: An AWS engineer says many old software “rules of thumb” don’t work and urges leaders to stay humble and keep learning. Comments split between “this is obvious,” a deeper “learn to judge what’s true,” and jokes about a Serenity Prayer footnote—showing updating instincts is both tough and essential.
AWS engineer Marc Brooker told the internet its favorite tech “rules of thumb” don’t fit anymore, and leaders should trade swagger for humility, courage, and curiosity. In a post on his blog, he likens veterans to a bobsled coach from Cool Runnings and calls this the “biggest change” of his career—an extinction‑level event for old habits. Translation: the shortcuts and gut checks that once worked may now steer teams into walls.
Commenters lit up. The loudest chorus? “This is the same advice as always—stay curious or get stale.” One skeptic deadpanned “That’s never not been the case,” another sighed it “sucks if you’re burnt out.” A brainy faction pushed back: the real skill now is figuring out what to trust, not just which tool to learn—meta‑epistemology. Surprise fan favorite: footnote 1, a mini‑history of the Serenity Prayer, with readers quipping they came for tech takes and stayed for theology. Meme squad rolled in with bobsled jokes and “we’re not bobsledding anymore,” while others side‑eyed the doomsday tone. The clash: groundbreaking wake‑up call, or a motivational poster with extra syllables?
Key Points
- •Brooker argues that many long-standing software engineering heuristics are now incorrect due to major technological shifts.
- •He lists areas impacted: maintainability, code vs library/service trade-offs, API usability, code understanding, service boundaries, and enforcement of security/data integrity.
- •He contrasts prior smaller shifts (cloud, SSDs, 100 Gb/s networks) with the current, much larger change.
- •He advises leaders to adopt humility, courage, and curiosity to identify which heuristics remain valid and which do not.
- •He cautions against discarding experience, emphasizing that taste, standards, business understanding, and technical trade-off knowledge still matter, while encouraging continuous re-examination of assumptions.