LYNXLAB.DEV
CORE PARADIGMS // PHILOSOPHIES & MENTAL MODELS

Foundational Paradigms & Tenets

Timeless methodologies, small sharp tools, and operational axioms for resilient distributed infrastructure.

METHODOLOGY // APPROACH TO SAAS & CLOUD SYSTEMS (FOR DEV & OPS)
12factor.net

The Twelve-Factor App

A battle-tested methodology for building scalable SaaS and cloud-native systems with maximum portability and zero configuration drift.

"...for engineers who build applications, and ops engineers who deploy or manage such applications."
COMPOSABILITY // SMALL SHARP TOOLS & UNIVERSAL STREAMS
WikipediaHarvard CSCI E-2x (Doug McIlroy)

The Unix Philosophy

Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together over universal text/byte streams.

"Do one thing and do it well. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface."
AIM FOR // OPERATIONAL CLARITY & PEACE OF MIND

Tenets to Aim For

A personal set of operational axioms I aim for to keep infrastructure resilient, predictable, and operator-independent.

01

AUTOMATION

  • •Automate what can be automated.
  • •Eliminate toil before optimizing it.
  • •Keep humans in the loop for decisions, not repetition.
›Repeat it. Automate it. Forget it.
02

REPRODUCIBILITY

  • •Everything should be reproducible.
  • •There should be one source of truth.
  • •Never make production depend on someone's memory.
›Define it. Version it. Recreate it.
03

RESILIENCE

  • •Assume everything will eventually fail.
  • •Design for failure.
  • •Anything that can fail silently eventually will.
›Expect it. Contain it. Recover from it.
04

DELIVERY

  • •Deploy often, deploy small.
  • •A deployment should be boring.
  • •Separate build, release, and run.
›Build it. Ship it. Repeat it.
05

OPERABILITY

  • •Prefer declarative systems.
  • •Make the system observable.
  • •Alert only when action is required.
›Observe it. Understand it. Act on it.
06

SECURITY

  • •Least privilege should be the default.
  • •Trust nothing that you cannot verify.
  • •Assume credentials will be compromised.
›Verify it. Limit it. Revoke it.
07

INFRASTRUCTURE

  • •Treat infrastructure as code.
  • •Know what is running, where, and why.
  • •Every change should be intentional and traceable.
›Define it. Understand it. Control it.
08

SIMPLICITY

  • •Minimize the number of things that need to be understood at once.
  • •Don't introduce complexity until it is justified.
  • •Remove complexity that has outlived its purpose.
›Question it. Remove it. Simplify it.
09

CONTINUITY

  • •Build systems that can survive their operators.
  • •Production knowledge should belong to the team, not an individual.
  • •Above all, don't make yourself a single point of failure, for those who come after.
›Document it. Share it. Outlive it.