1. Load the game

So you've picked up the controller. IT BEGINS.

Pay attention to the hard parts here. Pay attention to the pieces of context that are hard to retrieve or understand. Any struggle experienced in this stage is worth its weight in gold when gameplay concludes and it's your turn to save.

This whole thing is a loop, and you won't really get good at saving until you've learned what you need while loading. (Or, to use a more common metaphor: you won't really get good at teaching until you've struggled to learn.)

Active context

You picked up the controller for a reason. Start by comprehensively understanding that reason. Ground yourself in it. Maybe the customer handed you the controller, because they're stuck on a hard part. Maybe a system went down. Maybe you had an idea. Whatever it is, mentally run through the reasons you're here, and make sure you understand the core motivation.

The active context is all the stuff that's currently in motion.

Passive context

The passive context is everything *gestures* out there. It's all the lore that supports the active context. It's frequently the place where you'll find answers. (Not always, though.)

Places to check for passive context:

• Documentation

• Slack history

• Rollbar

• New Relic

• GitHub (code, issues, pull requests)

• Grafana (for Fly stuff)