Advanced event response strategies

An event response should be simple and organized, and it should bring about the solution to whatever caused the event in the first place. But, once again, no matter how hard we try, it is never that simple. Sometimes you’re working with a system you haven’t had the chance to work with much. Sometimes the team that you work with is not experienced enough to help out in any meaningful way. These circumstances cannot be helped because of time and personnel constraints, and they are largely out of our control. In such situations, we simply have to make do with what we have.

But there is one scenario that happens very often and causes widespread damage to the point where the response to the event stops being about damage recovery and starts being about what you can recover from the damage already done. This will occur if any sort of incident goes unreported or unmonitored for a long period of time. These situations often occur when there is some sort of data breach, or an unknown/undiscovered error is present in the system.

So, what do you do when you suffer such a scenario? Well, the first thing to do is not to panic. But don’t think don’t panic – that’ll make you panic more! Approach the situation logically. I will now give you insight into how I would approach such a situation. It is based on situations that I have faced in the past, as well as everything I have learned about problem-solving from all sorts of places. I think it’s a good way to solve a lot of problems, IT or otherwise. So let’s get into it.

Step 0: Read

Because: You don’t do that enough

Seriously, a lot of errors can be solved just by reading the outputs of those errors or glitches. Trust the thing you see and you will be rewarded; the solutions to your problems lie right in front of you. Well, the first steps to the solutions, anyway. But if you want to get there, you need to read and understand the process of getting there. You cannot get to step 1 without knowing all of the details in front of you.

Step 1: If it is a single problem, google it

Because: You are not alone.

This is serious advice. 90% of any sort of error that you encounter can be solved by Googling the error. This is because someone else has probably encountered your problem before. They have probably had the correct solution given to them before too. Chances are really high that you will find the solution to your problem on a Stack Overflow forum, a GitHub repository comment, an obscure YouTube video, or somewhere like that. You might be thinking to yourself: “It’s not that easy – no way can I solve my biggest problems just by googling them.” Stop thinking that right now! I once saw someone spend a full two hours trying a migration bridge, which we managed in about five minutes after looking at a YouTube tutorial. It happens – stop wasting your time and look for quick, informed results. They’ll handle the minor problems, and believe me, most problems are minor.

Step 2: If it is several problems, google it several times (or, now, ChatGPT it)

Because: One big problem is several small problems combined into one

It’s true: any problem can be broken down into its smallest components and solved at that level. It is basic logic; if you have a big problem, turn it into smaller problems and google those. If it is a really big problem or breaking down the problem will be mundane and take a lot of your time, you can use ChatGPT for that now; it is fairly good at that. Digesting a large amount of useless text into smaller, useful versions is probably what ChatGPT is best at. Use it. Use these great tools that you have at your disposal.

Step 3: Follow the methods of induction and deduction

Because: It will solve any everyday problem you have

Solutions and solving problems are very different from having ideas. Ideas are like lightning bolts from God; they are ghosts in our system, appearing out of the oddest of places. Grabbing an idea and bringing it to fruition is an ethereal experience, like having a religious revelation. Solutions are not that. They are simple, fundamental, and – if you know how to solve a problem – much easier to approach. The logic can be summarized in two words: induction and deduction.