I received this in an e-mail recently:

"Automated deployment to Production in ???? will never be allowed and ???? security policies also enforce that only administrators can perform ???? changes to Production."

My desk neighbour was the recipient on the ensuing rant but I want to do more than rant here. I want to understand how I can make sure that I never become the sender of that e-mail.

[In my opinion] The rate of technology-driven change in all aspects of our lives is increasing. To draw parallels between our mechanical evolution and technological evolution I would estimate my phone reminding me to buy milk when I go to the store is the equivalent of a crudely fashioned bronze blade.

There are some famous quotes in recent history for which retrospect has demonstrated that it is not wise to use the word "never". I think it's much safer to just assume that everything will change over time.

If you've ever spent time trying to solve complex (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hard) problems you've probably learned the hard way that how you define your objectives (e.g. your fitness function) is at least as important as the computing power you put into finding a solution. The same is true of less abstract, real-world problems.

I think that the sender of the e-mail above has some very legitimate objectives but that they have tightly coupled their problem and it's solution. I guess that's what I need to try and avoid...