I used to think being a good engineer meant writing code that worked. Then I started working on systems that move real money. When the cost of a mistake is that high, "move fast and break things" stops being funny. This talk is about Paranoia Driven Development: treating fear of failure not as anxiety, but as an engineering discipline. Through one true, slightly absurd personal story, I'll walk through the anatomy of a production incident – how it really begins, why our first instinct is usually the wrong one, why the bug you see is rarely the real cause, and how to stay prepared long after the incident is "over." Although the story comes from fintech, the mindset applies to any production system where failure has consequences. You'll leave with a different way of thinking about production incidents – and about the software you build every day.
Software Engineer @ Payoneer