Daily Talk

Posted on Edited on In

Daily

Pushback

Pattern: common ground -> issue -> alternative

Create pushback

When the advice doesn’t sit right with you:

1
2
3
4
5
I definitely see the value in doing x, and agree with you that ...

However, in past experience x rarely gave any good result because ...

**For the sake of time**, how about we focus on y instead?

If the advice does not align with the stakeholder’s goal:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
I agree with you that approach x has its benefits such as ...

but when I discussed those points with the project manager, he seemed **to be**
pretty committed to approach y because...

I see arguments on both sides, but to avoid complications maybe we should go
with approach y, I **am concerned that** too much back and forth will delay the
project timeline.

If one still insists, asking:

1
2
why you **feel strongly** about this?
what's your **rationality** behind your point?

Limited bandwidth but new task comes from others:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Thanks for telling me about this project, it is indeed relevant to our work on x.

But I am not sure if it is realistic with my workload because ...
I have other priorities **at the moment**.
I am expecting x to happen soon, so the next few weeks are not looking good.
I have a full plate.
I am **maxed out** on what I can take.

let me double check with my manager, but I really don't expect anything can be
**pushed** on my side.

I don't think i will have time to pick this up soon, I unassign it for now in
case someone else has cycles to pick it up (or until I have cycles later to puck
it up)

Since I probably won't be able to **commit too much time**, **would you mind**
asking y to lead/dirve this one? 

Do you agree it makes more sense for y to **take the lead** on this one as y spent
a month on it already?

Would you mind if I just focus **on a specific part** of the project?

Any chance we can postpone the project?

Reprioritize x over y on limited bandwidth:

1
2
3
4
5
6
I understand that x is important and urgent

Assuming everything else **goes as planned**, I expect it to take a week, leaving
no room for y.

Would you mind if we **push** y to next week?

More confrontational case with colleague throws his weight around 指手画脚, to make them back off:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Thank you for your suggestions, they will be definitely taken into account in
future development.

However, pls keep in mind the current method was **extensively discussed** and
**collectively decided**, and any proposal will require sign-offs from all
relevant teams.

Pls feel free to reach out to those teams and kick off the process if needed.

Defend pushback

Pattern: create common interests/share credits

Move from no because -> yes if(what you need in order to do it), to get more concrete info and avoid perfunctory/pərˈfʌŋktəri/, ambiguous(ambiguity) /ˌæmbɪˈɡjuːəti/

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
We understand this is a difficult thing to do.

If you **were to** move forward with this, could you estimate how much work is
involved? **Either way**, it would help to have a **clearer**/klɪr/ picture, it
would help us **weigh our options**.

We may go a different route if it makes more sense overall.

We're **open to** a different approach if the **numbers support it**.

If another route proves more practical, we're happy to **pivot**/ˈpɪvət/.

Addressing information gaps, overstating, and exaggeration:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Could you please specify what the issue is and **quantify** what is needed to
resolve it?

I believe this topic will be discussed in meeting, and we would like to have a
good answer ready(when it is brought up).

This is getting attention from leadership and we would like to prepare a
solid answer if it **comes up again**.

Challange in meeting

Pattern: Disclaimer -> invitation -> buffer(for who will jump in)

weigh in(influence)/chime/tʃaɪm/ in(插嘴) throw one’s weight around(指手画脚)/behind(鼎力支持, stronger than support, used for senior,leader)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
I haven't been **as close to this topic as** some of my teammates, so x, please
feel free to jump in.

I'm not **as familiar with this topic as** some of my colleagues. X, please feel
free to jump in.

What I learned so far is that...

My understanding is that ...
1
2
3
4
I still need to **bring this up**/**surface** to **a few people** to get a
**more complete picture**, if anyone has a better idea please chime in.

My current understanding is that...
1
2
3
This was only discussed **briefly** last time and **things are constantly changing**, so x please correct me if I am wrong.

What I remember from the last meeting is that...
1
2
3
4
I have a **rough idea** after talking to x about the potential concerns, and x pls
add more details to my **interpretation**.

What I understood is that ..., x would you like to share your thoughts?

If no one can help:

1
2
3
4
5
I'm not sure **off the top of my head**(without careful thought or investigation), 
can I **double check and get back to you**?

Let me take a moment to **gather my thoughts**. Could we revisit this a little
later?

Old Work Item

It wrapped up in May 2025.

It’s been a while since I last worked on this project.

It’s been over half a year since I last contributed to this project.

My memory of the finer details has faded, so for any specific questions I’d need to revisit the code/docs to give you an accurate answer

I’d want to take some time to refresh my memory before answering anything too specific.

Given that I’ve been away from it for over half a year, I’d estimate it’ll take me about a week to re-ramp up and get back to a productive state.

Code Ramp up

I’m having trouble tracing the flow of this code. Can you guide me through how this particular block works?

Where is the entry point for this feature or workflow in the code?

let’s trace the execution flow of this function

We can step through this code line by line to see what’s happening

Let’s follow the data as it moves through the system.

Let’s debug this issue by inspecting the variable values at each step.

How does this class interact with the rest of the system?

Which part of the code handles the communication between these modules?

I’m trying to track this function’s execution path. What are the key entry and exit points?

Lack of Context

I realize I don’t have enough technical context yet to ask the right questions.

I am still getting up to speed on this project, so I’m mostly here to actively listen.

I am ramping up, but I’m starting to get a good sense of the system by making small contributions to some tasks(It conveys that you’re in the process of learning and getting up to speed on a new project or role, and that you may not be fully productive yet)

I am not in a position to object or offer any inputs as the lack of background.

Happy to jump in and help on this. I do want to flag that this isn’t an area I’ve been actively working in, so I’ll need some ramp-up time to get oriented.

My initial findings may need a second set of eyes from someone closer to this code. That said, if someone can point me to the right docs or recent changes, I’ll get up to speed as quickly as I can.

Handling urgent request

When you can take it on but need a moment to regroup: “Absolutely, let me wrap up what I’m on(10–15 minutes) and I’ll jump right in.”

When you’re already stretched thin, it helps to make the tradeoff visible rather than just saying no:

“Happy to prioritize this — just want to flag that I’m currently working on [X]. Would you like me to push that back, or is there someone else who could pick it up?”

This puts the decision back on your manager without sounding resistant.

When you need more context to do it well, try something like: “Sure, I want to make sure I get this right. Can you give me a quick rundown of the key expectations and timeline?”

This reframes your need for planning as quality-mindedness, which most managers actually appreciate.

Understand Big picture

What is the main goal of the project/system? (why) How does it fit into the overall architecture/product? (what is new components?) What are the biggest challenges or risks we foresee? (priorities) Are there any similar projects or systems we can learn from? (leverage)

Understand technical details

Can you explain the data flow or how control plane gets involved? (how things work) What technologies are used and why were them chosen? (tech insight) What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the system? Are there any existing design documents or specifications I can review? (get up to speed)

Hands-on

Can you walk me through the deployment process for this component? How does this component interact with other services or APIs? What are the testing strategies and how can I contribute to them? Are there any specific tools or frameworks used for development or debugging?

KT

Explain sth like I’m Five.

it is overly simplified and there’s a lot more to technical details, the gist of it is xxxx

When lost in the KT

I start feeling this session will be very helpful and I am a bit overwhelmed, can we move to a meeting room so I can record all of this knowledge presentation for my digestion and later revisit.

I appreciate overview, I understand the high-level goal and overall context, but I am still a bit fuzzy on some of the technical details. to make sure I am on the right track, could we dive deeper into xxx? For example, maybe draw something very specific(fake data in table) to help me visualize and understand their interaction better.

I want to highlight the knowledge gap as they are all new to me, I am eager to learn more about them, it would be helpful for me to check the code and run codelab on critical components if possible, so I can come prepared with more specific questions.

I’d like to take some time to review what we discussed, and I might have more specific questions afterward. Would it be possible to schedule a follow-up or share any documentation I can review in the meantime?

Since this is a new domain/men/ for me, I’ll need some time to absorb everything.

As this is a new area for me, I’m finding it a bit challenging to fully grasp all the technical details right away. I’d like to dig into this further to get a better understanding and come back with more targeted questions. Is there any additional information or documentation that could help me get up to speed?

How to control the meeting

Bring the topic back:

1
2
3
4
5
6
let's hold off on that for a minute, we will come back to it soon.

that's a great point, but can we save that for a different meeting where we can
discuss this in detail? We need to focus on our main issue now.

let's take it offline

Move to another topic:

1
2
3
Let's move on to the question about ...
let's put this aside for now, I propose we move on/get to another subject.
we can now shift/switch gears and talk about ...

For unimportants:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Since we are running short on time, let's quickly go through a few major points.

Just to do a quick time check, with 10 min left we should run through the remaining
points.

Let's spend a couple of mins on these first few points so that we can concentrate
on the last point.

For importants:

1
2
3
4
can you pls elaborate on that?
can you pls expand on that?

while we are on this topic/Speaking of which, can you pls talk a bit more about...

Defend blame game

推卸责任,甩锅: shift the blame/Pass the buck/blame game

  • Cherry picking 选出最有利的 避重就轻, somewhat negative
  • Spinning facts 偏向性的解读事实(to a favorable one) 忽悠

Echo 附和:

1
2
3
4
We definitely see your point on xxx/thanks for pointing out

In some sense we agree with your point becuase ...
there is some truth in what you said about

To deal with cherry picking

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
there are other contributing factors here, and we would like to highlight ...

this does not show us the full picture/
this is not the whole picture because we are missing ...

we cannot overlook the importance of xxx

that's an isolated data point and does not tell the whole story
个例不能代表全部

things are more complicated/nuanced then that/than how they are being described
let's not oversimplify things

First understand work “nuance”:

  • things are nuanced: call to look deeper, consider multiple perspectives, and avoid oversimplified conclusions or solutions
  • has a nuanced understanding of xx: 了解门道

To deal with spin:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
I tend to interpret this a different way/
I'm leaning towards a different interpretation of what happened

we are putting too much emphasis on xxx
小题大做

we found string evidence to belive this is not due to xx, but rahter due to xxx

while it is tempting to believe that xxx, I think we need to be more realistic
about it.

Last, give action items.

Discussion Wrap-up

I’ll make sure to follow up on the action items we discussed.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted, have a great rest of the day.

Question about project

example: the capacity BM project on hold

Customer Empathy

Customer Empathy refers to the ability to understand and share the feelings, needs, and pain points of customers when they interact with products or services.

For example, you can say:

1
2
3
4
We just show our customer empathy if they don't want to follow the compliance.

We need to approach this with more customer empathy, simplifying the onboarding
process and making it more intuitive.

End meeting

  • Thanks everyone, that’s all for now, Let’s follow up on these action items and meet again on xxx.

  • Thanks for the productive discussion, I need to head back to work now. I’ll follow up on the action items we discussed.

  • I appreciate everyone’s input, I’ll get started on xxx and reach out if I have any questions.

Lead time

Lead time refers to the amount of time between the initiation of a process and its completion. In various contexts, especially in project management, supply chain, and manufacturing, lead time can mean the time it takes from the start of a process to the delivery of a final product or service.

First-party Service

Refers to a service that is developed, managed, and offered by the cloud provider itself.

Third-party Service

Services or app offered by companies other than cloud provider, often run on top of cloud.

Management/control/data plane

In terms of cloud computing

Plane Purpose Examples
Management Plane Overall management and administration of the cloud environment. Provides tools for users to interact with the cloud. Web consoles (AWS Management Console, Azure portal), CLIs (AWS CLI, Azure CLI), APIs
Control Plane Makes decisions about how data flows through the network. Handles routing, security policies, and other network functions. SDN controllers, Load balancers, Firewalls
Data Plane Where the actual data processing and forwarding happens. Executes computations, stores data, and moves data packets. Virtual machines (VMs), Storage services, Databases

Dail in

He is not on.

I can barely hear you.

(not hear clearly) Sorry, I miss some points. I didn’t hear you. Are your voice broken?

Who do we have on the call? Do you want to go first?

This is from SVL, we have x1 x2 and myself, we are waiting for x3 to dail/dail/ in. only three of us here

we are waiting for more folks to join.

xx is on her way. Even I saw her.

Meeting

Other meeting has high priority, so I have to push it down.

Sorry, I am taking it back as I have some questions(look back smth that already shows)

I think we can squeeze in, can we do 3-4 slot(time)?

I don’t want to put me in that situation.

Please be flexible as things are consistently changing.

We are moving the meeting out/in, sorry for the juggling(move things around in their schedule)

Understood, I am happy to step in and unblock the GA rollout, and I will pause my current work on xxx.

We need to ensure we have mutiple eyes on this case.

No major callout for dmi, we have some stockout ongoing

let’s see if anyone else is required (to join the meeting)

I got distracted/sidetracked by something else

on the time-wise, team-wise, cost-wise, performance-wise: in terms of xx, perspective. This is a team-wide / company-wide change: affecting the whole team

we will apply an incremental launch including shadow launch

We rely on 2 main methods to send asset data:

  • Real-time feed: publish data whenever an asset changes, this is crucial for keeping inventory fresh
  • Checkpoints: periodically dump a full snapshot of all their assets, we ingest these checkpoints to reconcile/ˈrekənsaɪl/ any missed real-time events

we don’t expect major change on scope and make sure nobody is overloaded

we are leaning towards plan B: prefer

This is required only if plan A surfaces issues with the approach: surfaces is a professional way of saying “reveals,” “brings to light,” or “uncovers.”

Is there a DP team drop-in channel, have some questions for them but don’t want to spam this chat!

Please plan for a dry-run with me during the week leading into this deep dive: “leading into” period of time immediately preceding an event

Let me check if we can squeeze some time next week to do the test

Before I log off today, I will close more tickets.

I am not very closely in the loop, xxx

how did you come across this?

we can do contingency if the plan is not finished on time: plan B or a safe net(such as add buffer)/scope reduction/alternative workflows. Please note it is different from “pivot”: pivot is a fundamental change in direction because the original idea failed, a contingency is a planned response to a specific hurdle.

we are delivering an industry-leading AI portfolio that is winning customers and partners, and dring business momentum

brb in 30 seconds, getting drink

UI will be mostly a “nice to have”

we should close this today and we need some more followups

I lost my thought

For sure this won’t be common but its not non zero either.

you can rejoin when you have a good network

Too much info for me to grasp, xxxx

We should lay out the current playbook so that they can really see the gain.

Am I the only one confused?

I’m just stating that we need to lay out the switchover to another plan in a way that they can understand that the switch is straight forward.

I don’t know it off hand (not immediately available in their memory)

minor opinion: held by a smaller number of people.

Are there new service offerings on the horizon? This shows your forward-thinking mindset and desire to contribute to innovation.

Are there specific features or less-known capabilities of our tools?

I don’t want to get sidetracked, I want to stay on track

Getting everybody to agree is hard

Making this offline in lieu of(instead of) online as the Quiet week

Do they freeze (video disconnected)

I have unpredictable/non-stopping meetings today.

we don’t always get thing right at beginning, so we need to evolve it.

we need to do sth to fix/ease the pain.

any questions or anything we are missing?

I think it’s a great start, it covers a lot of content, awesome.

besides what we have already gone though, can you go back to xxx slide.

for steps 2-5, how long does that typically take? it seems not a labor-intensive work

Thanks for your quick turnaround: an abrupt or unexpected change, especially one that results in a more favorable situation

It is fungible/'fʌndʒəbl/: replaceable by another identical item;

can you pls weigh in on this item, as it is blocking our development until we get an answer.

open to any ideas folks have about how that could work

they are individual users, not company users

I just want to send a reminder to everyone who is working on new features or modifying old ones, when you introduce or modify A resource please ensure B is met from the get-go. This is also true for any new data sets / objects introduced in Q stack and P stack. B is a mandatory compliance and we get flagged each time we violate it.

it could also result in a situation where manually deleting data to fix the violation is not in our control and we have to reach out to partner teams for it which adds additional toil on the folks who have to deal with these violations.

Please ensure you have build mechanism to handle X for all your resources.

For questions/doubts/explanations, plesse do not hesitate/ˈhezɪteɪt/ to reach out to xxx.

Since we are a pretty small team, so we can work closely.

I will set up another call early next week to converge on a proposed solution

I don’t remember that any more, and it is in a messy area with many experiments

I will give you my 2 cents on xxxx.

shout/ʃaʊt/ out to xxx: thanks to

sorry I must have missopke(misspeak) / misread!!!

We are setting up a war room chat and waiting for green light for rollout.

This time does not work for me.

Get started in a minute or 2, just give others the opportunity to join the call.

Why don’t we get started? We have a bunch of material to cover and we need to leave time for questions.

  1. Introduce yourself
  2. Articulate High level design and questions
  • feel free to interrupt if you have any questions.
  • let me know if you have questions so far.
  • I will be happy to answer your questions.
  1. If you can provide code fragment/ˈfræɡmənt/, resources
  2. Chat normally
  3. Bye, close the meeting

Something came up at last minute, sorry (to cancel the meeting)

he is running late, let’s wait 5 more minutes have something unplanned/ˌʌn’plænd/…

Any questions before we close (end the meeting).

Describe Problem

Wanted to check what our plan is based on this? Is this a change that we can bring in before GA? Any rollout required? Do we need to call out as a limitation for Ph1 and as a fast follow?

He did cherry-pick in the past

Based on my limited reading about the tool, xxx

I don’t remember the technical details though.

owing to/due to the important customer issue we’ve observed in region A and multiple ongoing stabilization efforts, we’ve held back from upgrading to 1.69 in the region.

please create a follow up ticket to track xxx

this pg is stock out(out of stock), another still has nodes in stock

the calls are fairly sparse/spɑːrs/ on xx side.

注意转折的链接，没有系动词, 介词: I think this slipped past regression test because we don’t have a long-standing PC in stg, we should have a PC doesn’t get deleted each regression run that we run expansion/contraction on.

this may have ripple effect in other projects in-progress within SVL.

there are some obscure problems came up.

the question is less about our individual role but more about how it fits into the e2e process and being able to go through the process during the testing as opposed to just seeing the use case in the document.

the playbook will be one time at the time of row creation.

that’s where the role of ops comes in, or bring the responsibility to network team, this is a responsibility shift we should be aware of, this is happening for the very first time.

the pg pool update is more dynamic.

that understanding we could get from Nixon.

I just think we need to go through some cycles of this to be comfortable with it and so far we just reviewed the use cases in the document.

we are open to get involved in the testing wherever you see fit.

some of the files must have setuid bit set in order to function properly.

Jaijeet can take the topic.

Kannu covered a lot we did last week.

It’s a softer, more natural way of saying “I don’t know” or “I’m unclear about.”

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
I don't have **clarity** on that
I am not the best person to answer that
I don't have **much visibility** into that
That is outside my area
I don't have **a sense of** xxx
I'm not sure **off the top of my head**
It's unknown to me.
It's a complete black box to me.
I don't have answer to this question. 
I cannot make any **promise** now.
It's hard to have a binary answer yes or no.

I am not qualified to do that. Here’s the document to figure it out, can you try it for me?

I ran into the same issue.

I don’t want to clutter/mess up/screw up the cluster… I don’t want to break anything in the cluster I don’t want to disrupt the cluster

Is there any workaround for this? Run something without killing my cluster?

let us talk about it on monday - seems convoluted (费解的).

So what happens right now … what happening is that … How come the output file is missing …

Let me know if any issues. What is your opinion Badal?

Elaborate the context, open the git issue if necessary. We need to understand the problem exactly(without discrepancy/dɪsˈkrepənsi/).

I would say don’t do that. we do have this fix. I will take a look at it today.

They didn’t articulate/ɑːrˈtɪkjuleɪt/ what need to test.

I haven’t got time to stay with Deep to discuss…

That’s what I am discussing with you. We don’t have anything to lose.

we are still facing the issue. Something is failing intermittently, hard to figure it out what is the problem.

Network hiccups/'hikʌp/, glitch/ɡlɪtʃ/, transient issue, self-recovered

What am I supposed to conclude?

I take what I said back again

I am still struggleing myself for this issue.

Nothing is working, we need to engage UI team, API team.

I am able to open the defect (ticket/issue) but not able to assign.

It is much easier said than done.

It is a big list but by no means it is a exhausted list

Make sure that it stays a useful tool and doesn’t become a maintenance headache/nightmare.

check out(pull)/in(push) the code (github).

Other things are more or less similar. There are a few notable differences from …

go/read/step through … sth is populated from … 什么被什么填充

analogy /əˈnælədʒi/ to sth. 类比什么 After updates, take the appropriate next steps.

This is an evolving project. As such就这点而论, be sure to consult its GitHub repository to find the latest installation instructions

It is commonly understood as the elapsed time or lag time between a request and its completion.

Let’s give it some soak/soʊk/ time.

I don’t get your question? You get the point!

From the technical perspective,… As oppose to running locally using docker compose, use kubernetes right away so you can spot the problems early.

Sorry for confusion, …

If there is no task with high variety, I can finish it by …

we have some technical/engineering difficulties/complexity.

Progress

However, these delays have reduced our buffer, if we encounter any unexpected issues moving foward, we will have less time to fix them which may put pressure on the team to fix issues within a limited window to meet the necessary rollout milestones.

If at any point you see timeline risks, pls escalate them quickly so we can decide on the best mitigation plan.

Please monitor the test house today to make sure nothing is left out(fail to include).

It is planned but nit committed.

unless you have a waiver(permission to skip a rule) from onduty to let the test continue to fail.

I will get as much done as possible today and share a concrete progress update EOD(end of day)/tomorrow morning, so we have a clearer picture of the exact timeline, let me know if that works for you.

I just had a handoff sync with xxx to get up to speed on the context, i will make it my top priority, i do want to be fully transparent, though, because I am starting fresh on this ticket, completing it within a single day might be a bit too optimistic due to the rampup time required.

If the ramp-up is high(onboarding cost high), what is the best path forward? Could you shuffle with tiems that need less rampup?

Can we pair on this one? if you could test it in realm, i can make changes meanwhile in the code.

The mendel is ramped down/up

Sorry for the delay in response, we should have an update today.

xxx to chime in, to add more details i may have forgetten.

We need to have a quick bug hunt, another minimum bug hunt we are prioritizing completing the design to get clarity scope

At risk due to TL attrition, uncoveing additional scope

we should outline when should we meet again

We need to do the exercise to find the root cause, as part of the exercirse.

Due to attrition in the team we lost some knowledge in these areas, if you can take this on your own it will help a lot.

we have very bad situation with tests

There is no rush(neutral), take your time. Not “rash” (negative term), it is a rash decision: Careless.

I’m in touch with the database team

It does not fit anywhere, they are not committed to it and we have no cycle for it.

we deprioritize it in favor of another project

I met with them just a few minutes back

The project has a lot of pressure on it, need to unblock them this morning.

It is a quick and dirty test.

The tool has scaffolded all necessary file for me.

Please don’t undo the changes we are trying to do

Based on the meeting today, I’m holding onto this until we’re clear on what we want to do around xxx

I’ve been swamped last couple of days and have fallen a bit behind.

Let me merge those CLs into my client and I am going to rebuild my env.

you CL is rock solid!

I have some tickets that could be spillover to next sprint

there is a slow down as I am oncall this week. we lost some bandwidth due to oncall in last 2 weeks.

The task will be put on me, another task anyone can pick it up.

give me another couple of days we should have an answer.

start this thread to close the external dependency for…

I send message over holiday as it is convient to me, you are not obligated/ˈɑblɪˌɡet/ to respond on a hoilday.

please let us know if there are any concerns or deviation from xxx: the action of departing from an established course or accepted standard

not much movement since last week, let me ping people.

Ack, give me 1 hour please, in the middle of live debugging.

I have some pending items in my plate.

It’s a overkill for me.

I was primarily working on … I would suggest…

I did’t make much progress yesterday.

I am going to mimic what you did … I will continue on the effort to …

we need to do that standalone … I haven’t started, it will not take too long …

This is a ad hoc task. (Ad hoc tasks are work items that can be created unprepared that are not initially part of a modeled process flow)

Anything else on your side?

That’s my status. That’s all in my side.

(什么时候完成?) When do you think you can put these in place? When do you expect to have a draft for review?

targeting/ETA mondya EOD. I am going to close it push/slip it to next sprint

definitely (明确地)

This is our major block. We plan to finish it by 8/28 or schedule need to be extended. Please let me know ASAP as I have to report to …

I am done, can I go/drop? The things left for me are … it’s not urgent.

I will let someone know and ask … so we get immediate attention. more or less the same/similar Is this still something that needs attention? It is unclear from the comments. Please advise.

Also DM(direct message) me the cluster info if this still needs attention.

I need to go back and see all the notes. go over your notes

There may be some potential issues that we cannot see right now. To be complete, let me mention …

XX seems to be waiting on some inputs. Do you think a discuss with XX will help?

I am not sure what do we need to proceed here.

Let’s put debug details aside (放一边) and proceed with … For now we leave the … outside until we figure it out.

Meanwhile(in parallel) 与此同时做什么

Not sure how far did you get with debugging? Need some time, since I am not admin.

I am taking most of my time doing sth… could you please support about the … I cannot find …

I am actively working on x,y and c and I don’t have bandwith to do I have taken over the ownership of … I am not fully aware of the process.

its structure makes absolutely no sense to a new user.

it has been a while since I checked it… 做了什么事有一段时间了… = it’s been a while

since then, … it is on the roadmap: it is part of a planned strategy or schedule for development or implementation.

Office Talk

I want to circle back and apologize for my confusion yesterday.

I totally unplugged from work during my break.

Run google search and it landed you here

A risk card is a small document that describes a single risk in a project for risk management, ensure risk is not overlooked.

It is a panic button from my end: it means the person feels the situation is critical enough that they need to escalate or signal distress.

Identify violations across various security horizontals

Just to close on the question regarding xxx

This is an AI suggestion, take it or leave it, but it seems a good idea to me.

we should getting more eyes ceon it, somebody may have very strong opinion.

I really don’t have a strong opinion on it.

we are at time (end meeting)

you folks probably know it better than I do

I don’t really have a super sense on that.

please set time aside before Dec 30th to complete the training.

will work from home today to save some logistics time.

the complexity of xx might necessitate relying on xxx.

we already have a scope increase, if there is any more scope increase we need to discussion about the timeline.

it’s important that we are aligned on our approach to xxx, the roles we take, and how we xxx

bump for @xxx

I haven’t fully looked into it yet.

apologize, for not being clear I apologize to everyone for asking you to work on Friday evening and night, but that’s circumstances are sort of asking us to do.

I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important

I hate to ask this, but we need some extra time tonight to keep things on track

Each in-flight project has overhead

awhile back 不久之前

the plan is to keep both around for some time.

It is important to allow this flow, we can run it by PM: Tell someone about something, especially in order to ascertain their opinion or reaction.

I was about to say that as well.

we can fix it as a fast flow: action, release, or correction that occurs quickly and immediately subsequent to a primary release or decision.

we need more help hands in this area.

I am leaning towards second opinion.

This document captures the performance characteristics of xxx and will be a running document: continuously updated and maintained over time.

For small, isolated deployments, failures are contained

Jeopardizes system relibility with a single high-stakes “big bang” deployment: high-stakes: potential for both significant gain and severe loss.

I doubt it is the actual issue and is probably a red herring: distraction, misleading.

Hi team, just a heads-up, I will be OOO from sept 8th to 24th, inclusive. Please DM if anything urgent meanwhile. thanks

We are also committed to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy as we adopt AI.

It seems like an onerous/ˈōnərəs/ requirement.

dogfooding our new product will help us understand the problems.

I believe this is a long overdue but huge thanks for helping me!

We kept crossing paths today.

I am extremely skeptical, typically the last person to adopt new technology: the last adopter

where are your projection coming from? (an estimate or forecast of a future situation or trend)

waypoint: a stopping place on a journey

ramifications of imminent/ˈɪmɪnənt/ improvements of AI developments: a consequence of an action or event, especially when complex or unwelcome

bespoke pattern: made for a particular customer or user

ROI(return of investment) is uneven when you use AI tools

The inflection point of AI development passed 拐点

we need to be upskilling: 提升技能

We will phase out the old framework: withdraw sth gradually

You will get the hang/hæŋ/ of it 掌握窍门

The operation fails for several reasons, not least because of the change without unittest: particularly.

I am not familiar the system so I am afraid the change might have unforeseen repercussions/ˌriːpərˈkʌʃn/: negative consequences.

This way, we can have one spot for all the ops operations: single location or position

we can still get by and have a acceptable performance: survive with minimal resources, pass something.

your hunch/hʌntʃ/ was right: a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than known facts

it is after/off hours

he will be on leave next week

Sorry to bug you

Do you go by xxx: is used when asking someone if they prefer to be called or known by a particular name.

examine/outline sth. iterating over time 如此往复… sth is discernable/di’sə:nəbl/ in … 有迹可循

It seems we have different readings/understanding on … I will sync up/ set with you later… We are on the same page now. Hopefully we can walk through the doc and fill in the gaps and identify any others.

I’m not familiar with this… I’ll have a look later today and will let you know if I figure out how it works.

强硬催人: Sorry for the push. When you have some time - please do check and let us know. Please let know. Any luck with xxx?

I just stop by. can you come over?

Hi chengdol, can you come to my office for a sec?

My bad for not being clear, I was specifically asking about Apologize for the long delay…

One quick question, …

if you have bandwidth you can start to work on …

Can you give me a quick overview about …

Distracted by the conversations/oncalls … will find comfort room to dail in

Thanks, this is a big call. we have a hard stop at 11:00 AM (for meeting)

you raise/give a bunch of information…

can I drop off（挂断）or I need to stay here?

Is the system back on line? Getting system up today.

users are allowed to elevate their privileges to root. we don’t want to escalate this issue. we will raise this question to XX team and get approval for not using it.

I get lost at this part… I feel a little bit abstract on … please don’t deviate my question. I don’t know whether … will fit in.

Make sense? He can leverage me when thing is not going

Nevermind I got what I needed (问了问题别人还没回答自己找到答案了)

who may know better on this.

(别人说了sorry什么的) That’s OK.

How can I get plugged/plʌɡ/ into the project/team/community?

Get educated ourselves This is a necessity

Use the navigation/ˌnævɪˈɡeɪʃn/ on the left to … 左边的菜单栏

Just in case the above link vanishes some day, I am capturing the main piece of the solution below.

Sorry if it’s off topic, …

A rather unusual situation, …

kubernetes and docker will part ways (分道扬镳)

off hours, in-hours, work time. 描述工作，非工作时间.

Test

Tip: keep the focus on risk and scope rather than on effort or reluctance.

it’s isolated to a single module with no downstream dependencies.

Given the limited scope of this change — it doesn’t touch any core logic — I think the current test coverage is sufficient.

This is a low-risk, isolated change.

I believe further testing may not be the best use of time.

Let me know if there’s a specific concern I should address Happy to discuss if you see risks I might be missing

The change has a small blast radius — it doesn’t touch any critical path. Our regression tests already cover the affected area, and the baseline metrics look stable.

We have sufficient coverage on the happy path and the key edge cases. The smoke tests all pass cleanly

The baseline metrics are consistent with previous releases — no degradation in throughput or latency.

I’d suggest we monitor the metrics post-deployment.

Issue

The workaround involving an in-place MVU was dismissed becuase the unacceptable 20 mins of downtime.

On impact-wise, I don’t think it will impact anything.

Not sure the correct place to surface this, looks like some fraction of SQL server workflow runs fail.

Can you pls shed some light on this?

They are not CCC but they are CDA and there are rules for that as well.

You can use this tool to do backfill(fix any missing items)

Given that we don’t have visibility into what the permission problem is, are we confident that will work?

I only have minimal understanding of xxx, based on that, this is my theory, not validated through testing.

How is it related to xxxx

I cross-checked, the problem is xxx: double-check using another reference.

please redact/rɪˈdækt/ any sensitive info in the log

this looks like an issue at XX layer, can we pls ask XX to look at it first?

can you pull in the right folks on this?

Query instance in bulk/bʌlk/

based on our fleet data, we see approximately ~10 crashes per day.

The performance has very high variance b/w runs

I am planning on circulating this with xxx

we are investigating the issue on priority, kindly request a bit more time to gather the necessary info to provide you with a comprehensive update.

I want to make sure we fully understand the situation so that we can provide the correct guidance.

We are working on it with the internal team and treating it with priority.

At this moment, we don’t have any sharable updates, will provide you with an update no later then 1st Dec, or earlier if possible

Please help craft the right message to customer

I am seeing some conflicting info, would like to request for clarification to ensure we are investigating the correct env and the exact issue you are facing.

the issues carryover from last oncall

It is fair to say that you have a working prototype

When concurrency is too high it can mean problems, like resource contention, which can lead to task overload.

Were you able to get around the issue?

They don’t know what they don’t know.

We got this feature request which I believe that falls in the charter of your team. I have done some initial digging in and added my notes to the ticket.

it sounds very unsatisfactory

The test is worthwhile

This gives me more exposure to understand the project

Presumably(据推测) it was caused by xxx

I did this inadvertently(without intention)

are you able to do a oncall handoff call?

I am not able to get into the technical side.

Any issue seen in other regions because of the same trigger?

we have a path to recover the inconsistent node state.

I will disengage myself from this issue.

It is just a lab, so security is not that paramount/ˈpærəmaʊnt/ here.

I will spend my part time on it

we can follow up with you on that.

could you please suggest steps to remediate?

please advise?

It might have slipped/slɪp/ from my TODO

We will not be able to immediately pick this up, I will add it to our backlog/ hotlist.

I wonder what the implications might be for us?

This issue doesn’t appear to be related to xxx, but an underlying xxx issue with networking…

We should investigate why the network performance is so bad.

This likely also explains some of the poor performance seen for the NFS mounts.

I’m going to remove my name from this one as the software appears(seems) to be functioning as designed, but is limited by the underlying infrastructure.

If additional information comes up and anything else you want me to look at let me know.

Per previous discussion, (I am) assigning this to you for now. (I am ) Following up on this

Not mission critical.

xxx incurs/introduces overhead.

Provide context and a shared language to describe …

pinpoint the problem.

There is a high likelihood that …

Make sure they can easily carry out the tasks by their own.

These are all contrast/transition phrases used to introduce an opposing or contrasting point:

1
2
3
4
On the flip side, ...
On the contrary /ˈkɑːntreri/, ...
in contrast, ...
Conversely, ...

It is a One-off/One-time operation.

Our team works on countering security breaches and establishing reliable defenses.

If you don’t understand what they are talking about:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Could you say that again?

Sorry, I don't have a background in this.

I'm not **fully up to speed** on the context.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking.

I'm still trying to catch up.

Sorry, I just **stepped away** — what did I miss?
Sorry, I just **got back** — could you catch me up on what was said?

Parental Leave

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
I would like to share my plan for the rest of the year, and also talk about something personal

I want to be transparent with you early — my baby is due in early June. I've thought carefully about how to handle parental leave in a way that works well
for both the team and my family.

Here's my plan: I have good family support coverage through the summer, so I don't need to take leave right away. My plan is to start my 4 months of parental leave in September/Oct, and return in January/Feb 2027.

This way, I am fully present and contributing from now through August — about 5 solid months. And I come back in January ready for a clean start on 2027.

I'd love your guidance on what you think would be the highest impact area for my level to focus on before my leave. I want to make sure the 5/6 months are well
spent.

When I come back in January, I want to hit the ground running. we can have a check-in in November or whenever the Q1 2027 OKR needs to be assigned — while
I'm still on leave. I want to make sure I'm part of the planning even from a distance.

I did consider splitting the leave — for example, taking 1 or 2 months this year
and saving the rest for next year. I want to be honest with you about why I'm
not sure that's the right approach.

My concern is around performance. As you know, performance rating is based on
actual working time, not leave time. If I split the leave into smaller pieces,
each working period becomes shorter, and it may be hard to deliver something
truly impactful. I'd rather have one focused period where I can go deep and
deliver real results, than several short windows where I'm constantly ramping up
and down.

That said, I'd love your inputs — I'm open to discussing it, but I want to
make sure whatever we decide gives me a fair chance to perform well.

Sick

I was “under the weather”(身体不适) yesterday and could not make it to our call. Thanks for capturing this.

AFK for 1 hour.

have some personal errands/ˈerənd/

Departure for doctor appointment, will be off for 4 hours

Discussion/Analysis

What you are supposed to do is xxx, but xxx

Thinking out loud, (then give your idea)

Is there a timeline on when we should finish this?

is there a project which is TU based to test VPCSC perimeter

The ad hoc testing guide only mentions xx which seems to be umbrella based.

Please use this chat space for any discussion releated to xx, this helps us consolidated all discussions in a single place instead of spreading across different chat spaces.

Sometimes, the xx occurs before the xxx, leading to fakes like the below.

Thanks for flagging this(point this out), xxx is triaging the flaky issues causing problems.

This part is not on compliance radar

Hi folks, it does not look like there are agenda items today, let’s do it offline unless there are objections?

I’ve been running behind(late) for every meeting today

There is a lot going on everywhere

What steps were taken in between?

I haven’t taken too close to it, xx

I try to go through the whole thread but a high level summary of the situation would be helpful.

Of course there are some points you know better than anyone else, and I will definitely ask you when they come up.

I’d also recommend that we don’t start the implementation until the design is approved to avoid throw-away work

what you are suggesting holds good for xxx

This proposal has been discarded.

TBH, I also only have limited visibility on legal side.

Will we lose the trust with customer?

Do all these works have to proceed sequentially? or can we do the UI work in parallel with the BE(backend)?

the state of the experiment and hence the visibility will be determined per user based on their group membership.

the advantages overweigh the overhead

what is the priority and severity/sə’vɛrəti/ of this customer case?

we inadvertently(unintentionally) patch XXX on this region: or we patch xxx without realizing it.

The proposals help alleviate/əˈliːvieɪt/ the follow pain points.

we have already evaludated xxx with external team and we are in violation.

Relibility is not the only question here, it’s the regional isolation that’s more important.

we have decided already that this is must be done, so lets not get into the question of whether or not it’s required, the how part is what we have to figure out.

thanks, that answer’s the first question.

They are in addition to above.

We can have a whiteboard session(the idea flies) to discuss it…

is it because the technical difficulty/engineering complexity or other things?

it is not just possible, it is happening.

the PM has resistance against the proposal because …

it is a long/medium term plan, it does not have funding yet

stable, reliable, sustainable, scalable, available, maintainable robust, resilient/rɪˈzɪliənt/

decision criteria: testability, maintainability, scalability, backward compatibility resuability, level of effort required

I am not sure if it is worth the trouble.

it is not foolproof but we should reduce the proliferation/prəu-,lifə’reiʃən/ of PII in notes and the tainted/'teɪntɪd/ data make it harder to manage compliance.

I think it’s a fair point.

I will check once on xxx side.

I will create some dummy/'dʌmi/ data for testing as per my scenario.

The steps to set available nodes as zero at the beginning of region bring up and opening it up as part of go-live tasks are missing in the checklist.

This should go whoever is responsible for xxx.

Defer to xxx (answer to a question or decision)

Add this to postmortem, please do conduct postmortem and analysis at your earliest convenience.

let me structure this a little bit and talk to you.

I will catch you up later. (fill the gap)

I will try to get that out(succeed in uttering, publishing, or releasing something) by tomorrow, if not by Monday for sure.

human-in-the-loop model/pattern (need human intervention)

Irrespective on the engineering side we are working on a plan to evaluate the impact based on both Iperf and xxx

The first option seems a non-starter, since we cannot get blank access to all clouds.

The transition to support and ops is complete and they are onboarded

We can leverage other teams’ achievements to speed up the process. = We can take advantage of other teams’ achievements to speed up the process.

We have different reading on …let’s have xxx to explain on it

let’s put one step back…

Here is a guess/suspect/speculation/ˈspekjuleɪt/, it remains skeptical/ˈskeptɪkl/

Looks like we once again run into the … issue caused by …

The theory didn’t hold.

… is not designed in that way, I suggest to read to recap what is the purpose of … and how does it interplay/interact with …

IMO,IMHO … The doc is based on incorrect assumption, specifically, see … Consequently, I don’t believe … it is a most plausible alternative solving the issue of …

How to push back request effectively

Requires a delicate/ˈdelɪkət/ balance of assertiveness, diplomacy, and providing well-reasoned arguments.

  1. Understand the Request: Make sure you fully understand the PM’s request and the reasons/values behind it. Ask clarifying questions to get a clear picture of the requirements and the expected outcomes.

  • Could you clarify the main objectives and expected outcomes for this feature? I want to make sure we’re on the same page.

  • How often does that happen? (if it is low frequency and has manual fix, then it does not have high priority)

  • What’s current workaround or solution.

  1. Gather Data and Facts: Before the meeting, gather data, metrics, and facts to support your position. This could include technical constraints, resource limitations, potential risks, or user feedback.
  • “cannot provide any promise or funding this now, get back to you later after gathering more metrics, data to see if it worth the effort and how much effort is needed.”
  • “I’ve reviewed the performance metrics, and our current infrastructure may not support the scalability requirements of this feature.”
  1. Acknowledge the Request: Start by acknowledging the PM’s request and showing appreciation for their input. This sets a positive tone for the discussion.
  • “I understand that this feature could be beneficial for our users and aligns with our product goals.”
  • “I appreciate your suggestion to add this feature, as it could potentially enhance user engagement.”
  1. Express Concerns Diplomatically: Clearly and respectfully express your concerns about the request, focusing on the potential challenges, risks, or impacts on the team and project.
  • “However, I have some concerns about the technical complexity of implementing this feature within our current timeline.”
  • "However, given our current workload and the technical challenges involved, I’m concerned that we may not be able to deliver this feature within the proposed timeline.
  1. Provide Alternatives: Offer alternative solutions or compromises that address the PM’s needs while accommodating the team’s constraints or concerns.
  • “Instead of implementing the feature as initially proposed, what if we consider a phased approach or explore alternative solutions that could achieve similar outcomes more efficiently?”
  • “Instead of a full-fledged feature, what if we start with a simpler version or a prototype to test the concept and gather user feedback?”
  • “I am also interested in it, but I more prefer to have it until we have clear understanding the longer term plan, otherwise the effort might not be aligned with the future design, we can keep it as what it is for now.”
  1. Seek Collaboration: Encourage collaboration and open dialogue by inviting the PM and other stakeholders to discuss and brainstorm solutions together.
  • “follow up meeting with more stakeholders.”
  • “I believe that by working together, we can find a solution that meets our objectives while considering the team’s capacity and the project’s constraints.”
  • “I can spend partial time on it: 30%”
  1. Be Open to Feedback: Be receptive to feedback and be prepared to adjust your position based on new information or perspectives presented during the discussion.
  • “I’m open to feedback and would appreciate your insights on how we can best address this feature request while considering our current priorities and constraints.”

Testing

  • From the ground up to support a continuous integration-based methodology.

  • This new approach allows for iterative integration and testing

  • We’ve significantly reduced turnaround time(from start to finish) and operational toil while improving predictability.

  • scale, stress and performance testing is in-progress.

  • we will be starting complete tear down of testing env, the below ones will be dismantled.

Launch

This feature has been top of mind for customers/account team, xxx

This cross-functional project brought many teams together in delivering this impactful feature, a big thank you to xx team, partner team and leadership for their contributions in makeing this accomplishment in reality.

If we miss any team/person, please drop us a note or add them in the thread.

Leaving

For other people

I am grateful that when we could interact, although it was rare

was very nice working with you, all the best to your next stage!

People will miss you!

please carry on the good work!

whom can I reach to now, I mean your replacement.

We will be having farewell lunch for xx at xx on Monday, Febr 3rd. Let’s meet and wish him all the best in his new role and Thank him for all the GREAT work he did for our team. Please RSVP by Thursday.

Thanks for all the work you did… I will surely miss your expertise.

Myself

Resignation letter to manager Dear XXX,

Please accept this message as notification that I am going to leaving my position and my last day will be July 24, two weeks from today.

I have enjoyed my time at XXX and will miss working with you and the team. I’m proud of the work we’ve done. Thank you for your professional guidance and support, I wish you and XXX the best success in the future.

Please let me know what to expect as far as my final work schedule, accrued vacation leave, and my employee benefits.

I’m also happy to help assist in training my replacement during the transition and make it as smooth as possible.

Sincerely,

I was previously working at XXX in San Jose as a software engineer, I’m particularly interested in Linux, Cloud Computing, especially the container orchestration. In my free time I enjoy hiking, playing piano, and writing on my blog.

Resignation letter to peers Dear colleagues and friends, this Friday, Jan 24th will be my last day at xx, but this Is not a note to say good bye. This is a note to say thank you.

I am so thankful for my time here at xxx and for all of the wonderful people who have I have had the privilege to work with.

I have learned so much and been inspired by many of you over the years. I am so grateful for all the gifts the people of xx have given me and I can only hope in some way I have inspired some of you as well.

I take my leave from xx because of a unique opportunity to leverage all I have learned, and build some really cool xx solutions right here in my beloved Chicago. Leaving IBM and all the people I love here was the hard part, even with the exciting opportunity ahead of me.

from Book

This book is a broad overview of living on the Linux command line

Another goal is to acquaint/əˈkweɪnt/ you with the Unix way of thinking

This book is divided into four parts

ordinary tasks that are commonly performed from the command line working directory = current directory You will thank yourself later reveal/rɪˈviːl/ more details examine text files (这个词要用起来) here are some all-time favorites: …

As we gain Linux experience，… Without a proper understanding of expansion, the shell will always be a source of mystery and confusion.

… does the trick.

How to go far

  1. Early draft
  2. Comments and discussion about content, presentation
  3. synthesizing many ideas
  4. respectful discussion and disagreement
  5. lose the ego
  6. learn to take criticism
  7. learn from mistakes

How to feedback

  1. Show the intent(do you have a few minutes)
  2. Show the data
  3. Show the impact
  4. Leave room for questions
  5. Ask for feedback proactively (peers, manager, team)