Title: Microservices, Spreadsheets, and the Cost of Ignorance

---

November 25, 2013. I’m sitting in our cramped office at [company name], staring at a 12-factor app manifest for one of our microservices. It’s been months since we started this project, but every time I revisit it, I see the same mistakes and missed opportunities. The microservice is supposed to handle user authentication and session management, but the implementation is… well, let’s just say it could use some work.

The 12-factor app checklist is plastered on my screen:

• Codebase: One codebase tracked in revision control
• Dependencies: Explicitly declare and isolate dependencies
• Config: Store config in environment variables

And so on. I’m going through each item, trying to understand where we went wrong. We’ve been using Docker containers for a while now, but the microservice architecture has grown more complex than any of us initially anticipated. The code is scattered across multiple repositories, and it’s hard to see the forest from the trees.

The Spreadsheet Saga

Last night, I was working late, trying to clean up some of our API calls using Postman. One of my co-workers had written a spreadsheet with all the HTTP requests we needed for testing. It had 29 lines of JavaScript and no library used—just a simple way to run through different API endpoints. When I first saw it, I thought it was brilliant. But as I started using it this morning, I realized that it’s not just inefficient; it’s also dangerous.

Every time we add a new feature or change an endpoint, the spreadsheet gets outdated. We have several developers working on different branches, and it’s impossible to keep track of which version is being used by whom. It’s like a game of telephone—each developer gets their own truth, and they rarely sync up with anyone else.

A Stupid Company

In the middle of my frustration with our microservice setup, I read about “Started a stupid company. Failed.” on Hacker News. The post was written by someone who had started a tech company and then failed spectacularly. They talked about their journey, the mistakes they made, and the lessons learned. It struck a chord with me because I see similar patterns in our project.

The biggest lesson: don’t assume that just because something works for one person or on your local machine, it will work everywhere else. Our microservice was designed to handle user sessions, but we had assumed too much about how the different services would communicate. We didn’t properly set up environment variables and hardcoded values in some places.

The Cost of Ignorance

As I sat there debugging our microservice, I realized that we’ve paid a heavy price for our ignorance. We rushed into adopting Docker containers without fully understanding their implications. Now, as the codebase grows and our architecture becomes more complex, we’re paying the cost in terms of time and effort.

We need to step back and reassess our approach. It’s not just about writing better code; it’s about building a culture of continuous learning and improvement. We need to invest more time in understanding the tools and technologies we use—like Docker, Kubernetes, and etcd—and how they fit into our architecture.

Moving Forward

This microservice is far from perfect, but that’s okay. The goal isn’t to create flawless code on day one; it’s to learn from our mistakes and grow as a team. We need to take the lessons we’ve learned and apply them going forward. Whether it’s improving our API testing with better tools or properly setting up environment variables in our microservices, there are always opportunities for improvement.

As I save my changes and close the spreadsheet tab, I feel like I’m taking a step towards a more organized and efficient development process. It won’t be easy, but that’s part of the journey. We’re in this together, and we’ll get through it one issue at a time.

---

That’s what life was like on November 25, 2013—full of microservice headaches, spreadsheet frustrations, and the relentless pursuit of better practices.