MTTR: Mean Time to Reinvention

If you’ve ever hosted a production software application, you’ve probably heard the term “Mean Time to Recovery” or MTTR. Basically, when things inevitably crash (and they do for everyone, even the very best), how fast can you get the system back to fully operational?

You’ve probably experienced this when a site like Facebook or GitHub goes down, and the world panics while everyone watches the status page… frantically refreshing so they can use it again.

A short MTTR is ideal. A long MTTR can be a disaster.

The Other MTTR

Let’s face it. AI is going to cause a lot of crashes. And not just servers in the cloud, but career paths and entire org charts.

People accustomed to fitting into nice, neat roles with a clear 5-10 year plan are going to feel uneasy as their roles and responsibilities change quarterly (instead of alongside a promotion every 2-4 years).

The big question (to paraphrase 90s band Chumbawamba)… when these people get knocked down, will they get up again?

And how fast?

What will their mean time to reinvention be? What’s their MTTR?

A few years?

A few quarters?

Or can they join a new team and be valuable in under a month? A week? Immediately?

From PhD to a No-Nothing Developer

After spending 10 years getting a BS and PhD at MIT, many were shocked that I “threw it all away” and became a backend Drupal developer. “Developer” is too strong a word, because I could barely understand the complex UI, let alone write useful PHP code or database queries.

I went from the world expert on van der Waals forces of carbon nanotube systems to… the bottom of the ladder.

It was not easy. And it took me many, many years to claw my way back up to a normal income level and a position among my peers.

But then? I kept on rising the ranks, eventually becoming one of the leaders in the space.

And Another One

So did I stay in Drupal forever? Hell no.

I threw that all away and started again. And then again. And then again.

Depending on how you count, I’m into my 6th startup or business. And every time I jump into a new space… yes, I bring a lot of transferable skills and experience. However, I also have to spend A LOT of time drinking from the firehose trying to catch up to everyone else.

Now I can join a company and start figuring shit out on day 1. Will I be perfect? Hell no. But I’ve survived through many near-death experiences in business, so I’m largely unfazed by my “normal” day-to-day disasters.

Continuous Education to Continuous Reinvention

With AI, we no longer get to choose when to leap into reinvention.

The world is changing so fast that many of us will be forced into continuous adaptation.

Some will succeed in this new paradigm. Many won’t.

Those with slow MTTR (requiring years to reinvent themselves) will learn things just in time for them to be out of date again. How awful! They will forever be at the back of the line.

Those with a fast MTTR? They have the highest probability of adapting to and benefiting from every new wave of change. On net, they will be the leaders at the forefront.

So… what do you do?

Change is coming, so embrace it.

If you haven’t built up a high tolerance for change, start building this muscle NOW.

Start introducing more change into your life now. New hobbies. New experiences. Read books that challenge your thinking. Visit new places. Question all of your existing strategies. Try new AI tools.

When Netflix wanted to improve their MTTR, they would actively introduce “Chaos Monkeys” into their infrastructure to test how resilient it could be. Start shutting down servers. Disconnecting network lines. How fast would the system detect and come back online? If it were slow and fragile, you’d design the system to be stronger next time.

Add a dash of chaos monkey into your life. Or as Scott Adams would say, if you’re bored, you’re not embarrassing yourself enough. Embarrassment can ONLY happen when you put yourself way out of your comfort zone. No risk of embarrassment means you’re not taking risks.

Yeah, I Yolo’d This Article

I wrote this article in a single-word vomit while waiting in the hot parking lot outside my daughter’s school dance.

I could (and should) have spent more time refining it. But whatever.

I had been sitting on this idea for a week, and it ALMOST died on the vine.

But I know it’ll connect with at least a handful of readers. And it would be a disservice not to share it.

This is true for you too.

Get out there more. Do hard things. Do weird things. Do half-baked things.

It’s ok. The world will judge you anyway. At least make it an interesting life to judge!

PS. Thank you, Grammarly, for the rapid spell check. Only 40 this time! Giddyup 🤠