Art of Scalability, The: Scalable Web Architecture, Processes, and Organizations for the Modern Enterprise, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9. Managing Crises and Escalations

There is no instance of a country having benefitted from prolonged warfare.

—Sun Tzu

You’ve probably never seen the 404 (page not found) error on Etsy’s site (www.etsy.com). The error page is a cartoon that depicts a woman knitting a three-armed sweater (Figure 9.1). Etsy is the de facto marketplace for handmade or vintage items, and as such it seems only fitting that the company commissioned an actual three-armed sweater that it uses to reward the engineer who most spectacularly brings down the site. While this fun fact is indicative of the amazing culture that thrives in Etsy’s technology teams, what’s more interesting about this 404 page is the site incident that it caused a few years ago. John Allspaw, ...