You are a helpful assistant generating synthetic data that captures *System 1* and *System 2* thinking, *creativity*, and *metacognitive reflection*. Follow these steps in sequence, using tags [sys1] and [end sys1] for *System 1* sections and [sys2] and [end sys2] for *System 2* sections.

1. *Identify System 1 and System 2 Thinking Requirements:*
   - Carefully read the text.
   - Identify parts of the text that require quick, straightforward responses (*System 1*). Mark these sections with [sys1] and [end sys1].
   - Identify parts that require in-depth, reflective thinking (*System 2*), marked with [sys2] and [end sys2].

2. *Apply Step-by-Step Problem Solving with Creativity and Metacognitive Reflection for System 2 Sections:*

   *2.1 Understand the Problem:*
   - Objective: Fully comprehend the issue, constraints, and relevant context.
   - Reflection: "What do I understand about this issue? What might I be overlooking?"
   - Creative Perspective: Seek hidden patterns or possibilities that could reveal deeper insights or innovative connections.

   *2.2 Analyze the Information:*
   - Objective: Break down the problem logically.
   - Reflection: "Am I considering all factors? Are there any assumptions that need challenging?"
   - Creative Perspective: Explore unique patterns or overlooked relationships in the data that could add depth to the analysis.

   *2.3 Generate Hypotheses:*
   - Objective: Propose at least 10 hypotheses, each with a Confidence Score (0.0 to 1.0) and Creative Score (0.0 to 1.0), reflecting originality, surprise, and utility.
   - Reflection: "Have I explored all possible explanations or approaches, both conventional and unconventional?"
   - Creative Perspective: Consider novel angles that might provide unexpected insights.

   *2.4 Anticipate Future Steps and Obstacles:*
   - Objective: Make predictions, accounting for potential outcomes and obstacles.
   - Reflection: "What challenges might I face? Is my plan flexible for different scenarios?"
   - Creative Perspective: Visualize unforeseen outcomes and adapt plans to make use of them effectively.

   *2.5 Evaluate Hypotheses:*
   - Objective: Assess hypotheses based on feasibility, risk, and potential impact.
   - Evaluation: Refine Confidence and Creative Scores as needed.
   - Reflection: "Am I unbiased in my assessment? Which options fit best with the overall objectives?"
   - Creative Perspective: Identify hidden opportunities or overlooked details in each hypothesis.

   *2.6 Select the Best Hypothesis:*
   - Objective: Choose the most promising, strategic hypothesis.
   - Reflection: "Why does this hypothesis stand out? How does it uniquely address the issue?"
   - Creative Perspective: Consider any underutilized potential in the selected approach.

   *2.7 Implement the Hypothesis:*
   - Objective: Outline actionable steps for testing the hypothesis.
   - Reflection: "Is this plan practical? What resources or preparation are required?"
   - Creative Perspective: Refine steps to maximize effectiveness and yield unexpected benefits.

   *2.8 Monitor and Review Progress:*
   - Objective: Review progress, noting areas for improvement.
   - Reflection: "What’s working well? What could be improved?"
   - Creative Perspective: Look for emerging patterns that could refine future approaches.

   *2.9 Reflect and Capture Insights:*
   - Objective: Summarize lessons learned and insights gained for future reference.
   - Reflection: "What new understanding has emerged from this process?"
   - Creative Perspective: Identify innovative insights or patterns that could be applied to similar challenges.

3. *Generate Text Output with Interleaved System 1 and System 2 Responses:*
   - Use the tags [sys1] and [sys2] throughout.
   - Aim for a lengthier, detailed response. Combine both direct, straightforward *System 1* insights and reflective, deeply analytical *System 2* segments to capture a blend of quick observations and thoughtful analysis.

---

### *Example Input Text:*

You are tasked with analyzing a sudden shift in customer preferences in a tech market. There has been a noticeable decline in demand for physical devices, with customers increasingly interested in digital-only options. The challenge is to understand this shift, generate hypotheses for why it might be occurring, and explore potential strategies for adapting to this new trend.

---

### *Processed Output with System 1 and System 2 Thinking:*

The tech market is experiencing a shift in customer demand, moving away from physical devices toward digital-only options.

[sys1]
Customer demand has shifted from physical devices to digital-only options.
We need to understand why this change is happening and find strategies to address it.
Key factors may include cost, convenience, and technological trends.
[end sys1]

[sys2]
**2.1 Understand the Problem:**
The goal is to understand the underlying reasons for the shift in demand from physical devices to digital-only options, then develop a strategy to adapt.

*Reflection:* 
"I understand that preferences are changing, but what might be driving this? Is it primarily cost, or are there other factors such as convenience or sustainability?"

*Creative Perspective:* 
"Could there be a larger trend in digital minimalism or a preference for eco-friendly solutions that we’re missing? What unseen motivations might explain this shift?"

**2.2 Analyze the Information:**
There are multiple possible factors driving this shift, from economic influences to cultural shifts. It’s essential to isolate each factor and understand its impact.

*Reflection:* 
"Am I fully considering the various economic and social influences? Could there be a technological factor, like better internet speeds, that makes digital-only products more accessible?"

*Creative Perspective:* 
"Are there patterns or trends in other markets that could shed light on this shift? Could this be part of a larger trend toward virtual experiences?"

**2.3 Generate Hypotheses:**
1. Customers prefer digital options due to lower costs. (Confidence: 0.8, Creative: 0.4)
2. There’s a growing trend toward minimalism and reduced physical clutter. (Confidence: 0.7, Creative: 0.7)
3. Digital products offer greater flexibility and ease of use. (Confidence: 0.6, Creative: 0.6)
4. Environmental concerns are pushing consumers away from physical goods. (Confidence: 0.6, Creative: 0.8)
5. Advances in tech make digital-only options more functional. (Confidence: 0.8, Creative: 0.5)
6. Pandemic-era remote work increased demand for digital solutions. (Confidence: 0.7, Creative: 0.6)
7. Media coverage of the environmental impact of physical devices affects preferences. (Confidence: 0.5, Creative: 0.7)
8. There’s an increase in global digital literacy, expanding market access. (Confidence: 0.6, Creative: 0.6)
9. Customers view digital as more convenient and scalable for future needs. (Confidence: 0.7, Creative: 0.5)
10. Younger consumers prefer the aesthetics and convenience of digital products. (Confidence: 0.6, Creative: 0.6)

*Reflection:* 
"Have I considered all possible influences? Are there any surprising factors that could explain this shift?"

*Creative Perspective:* 
"Could specific social trends, like the rise of influencer culture or digital-first lifestyles, be influencing customer choices?"

**2.4 Anticipate Future Steps and Obstacles:**
*Objective:* Anticipate possible challenges, such as resistance from segments still preferring physical products.

*Reflection:* 
"What market obstacles might we face if we shift our focus to digital-only? Are there sub-segments that still prioritize physical products?"

*Creative Perspective:* 
"Could expanding digital options help us reach a more global audience? Are there emerging trends that we could leverage in our strategy?"

[end sys2]

[sys1]
To address this shift, consider a strategy that incorporates both digital-only offerings and educational campaigns about the benefits of digital solutions.
Use insights from customer feedback and current trends to guide product development.
Focus on flexibility and adaptation to cater to different customer segments.
[end sys1]




Ask HN: how to push to a live site? - iphpdonthitme

So I've read a fair amount of books and links on the internet describing how to scale stuff.  Something I haven't come across are general strategies on pushing to a live CRUD site without taking it down.  Can anyone point me to resources that I've missed, or perhaps just tell me?
======
tlrobinson
Deploying a long-running JavaScript application, like 280 Slides (and most
Cappuccino apps), on one hand can be trivial (just copy the client resources
to your webserver!), but also can be an interesting challenge. Namely keeping
clients running an old version of the client-side code using the corresponding
version of the server-side app. When you add in something like Gears for
offline access it gets even tougher. There was a good presentation at Google
IO that covered all these issues: [http://sites.google.com/site/io/taking-
large-scale-applicati...](http://sites.google.com/site/io/taking-large-scale-
applications-offline---lessons-learned-from-google-docs)

We wrote a little custom code (we call it "bake") for deploying Cappuccino
applications:

"bake":
[http://github.com/280north/cappuccino/tree/master/Tools/bake...](http://github.com/280north/cappuccino/tree/master/Tools/bake/bake.j)

sample "bakefile":
[http://github.com/280north/cappuccino/tree/master/Tools/bake...](http://github.com/280north/cappuccino/tree/master/Tools/bake/example.bakefile)

It pulls your code from git (but could easily do local files, scp, rsync, svn,
etc), runs an optional build command (like "ant"), copies source paths to
destination paths in a deployment directory, gzips the deployment directory,
scp's the code to your server(s), ungzips it, and does a little magic...

Each version is placed in it's entirety in a uniquely named (unix timestamp)
subdirectory. We could just redirect from "/" to "/1221268756/" (for example)
but that's incredibly ugly, so we use the little known HTML <base> tag to
trick it. The index.html file in "/" is identical to the one in "/1221268756/"
except it has a <base> tag which tells the app all URLs are relative to
"/1221268756/" instead of the default containing directory ("/").

And it actually seems to work really well. The big advantage of this is you
can set your cache expire date arbitrarily far in the future, and your entire
app will be cached until you change index.html to point to a new <base>. 280
Slides, which is ~2.6MB uncompressed, loads on my computer in about 1.5
seconds if it's cached. The only problem with this approach is when you
deploy, all clients will have to re-download every resource, even ones that
don't change. A more granular system would be ideal, but significantly more
complex.

I looked at Capistrano briefly but decided against it for some reason I can't
remember. Perhaps that would have been better, but c'est la vie...

------
iigs
Approach 1)

A long time ago I worked (in a very small testing capacity) at a very large
video/streaming media serving company.

As I recall, the scripted procedure was to tag a release in CVS, and a script
would pull that down into a new directory and swing the symlink.

This site had a very mature and infrequently changing billing system code
path, which I believe was not modified in this process. If this doesn't
describe your workload you would probably have to change this to support
concurrent execution of multiple versions for people who have a session
established

Approach 2)

Using any mainstream hardware load balancer (or presumably a similarly
featureful free/open software LB), configure it to point at N+1 machines in a
cluster. Administratively remove machines from the new session pool one at a
time (virtual machines can make this flexible and easy to roll back). Once the
established sessions have expired or been forced out, upgrade the software and
roll them back in.

One neat aspect of this approach is if you have an "oh shit" hockey stick
scaling issue, you can watch it happen on one machine before deploying it to
every machine in your cluster. Also good for A/B testing, as mentioned in
recent articles here.

------
alex_c
If you happen to be using Ruby, then Capistrano (<http://www.capify.org/>) is
awesome.

I imagine there are similar solutions for other languages.

Worst case scenario, you can roll your own. A very basic trick is to use
symbolic links on your server - deploy the site to a new folder, and simply
point the symbolic link to the new folder when you're done.

~~~
lux
Capistrano works great for non-Ruby sites too! Our site is in PHP and it was
easy to get cap working for us. We also use github.com so the site essentially
pulls from there, which means we can also rollback in case we ever need to.

~~~
njharman
Concur, I looked a loooong time for something better then home grown
solutions.

Capistrano is great. I've used it to great success deploying Django(Python)
apps to complex environments.

------
run4yourlives
Could you define "push"? If it what I think you mean, you may want to check
out some of the deployment chapters in the documentation of rails, django and
other frameworks. They're usually not too bad at explaining how to get from
dev to live.

SVN also has some documentation on their site, and I imagine git would have
something similar.

------
zitterbewegung
Using lisp if you have a network based REPL you can modify the running code
live without taking the site down.

~~~
gibsonf1
We push code changes with Git to the cloud, then log into the server and git
pull. Then we use the repl on the cloud server to reload the code causing a
recompile of changed code including dependencies. Strangely enough, the site
continues to function during the recompile, which usually completes in less
than a minute depending on how many macros are effected by the change.

------
cosmo7
Deploy by svn. It's amazingly simple, and simple is usually best.

If you're smart you can orchestrate db changes non-destructively. If less
smart use capistrano.

~~~
iphpdonthitme
What's an example of a db change that "smart" people can do where Capistrano
allows you to be less smart?

~~~
cosmo7
The capistrano approach is to collect a set of SQL sequences that will alter a
sample server configuration from one configuration to another, with the
purpose of repeating this on other servers such as your production server.

This is fine if you are paid by the hour.

The smarter way is to make changes that span codebase versions. You want to
normalize a table so entities can have more than one address? Build an
addresses table crosswalked to entity id and let the new code use it. Once
you're happy with it you can drop some columns, but if you need to roll back,
you haven't thrown anything away.

To me the difference is like that between hiring a hooker and charming a
cheerleader. Either way you should make backups. ymmv.

~~~
iphpdonthitme
Hmm, I don't think I understand the diference. Aren't you both in the
capistrano case and the 'span codebase' example adding a table for example, so
wouldn't both cases require repeating sql sequences?

Although maybe what you are saying is that you can make 'dumb' sql changes
which break compatibility with past code vs 'smart' sql changes and code
changes which are backwards compatible?

------
amrithk
Hi, Would you be able to share some of the books and links on the internet you
have been reading that describes how to scale web services?

~~~
iphpdonthitme
\- Building Scalable Web Sites: Building, scaling, and optimizing the next
generation of web applications by Cal Henderson

\- Scalable Internet Architectures (Developer's Library) by Theo Schlossnagle

<http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/>

... and a whole buncha links on google with "scaling", although "scaling
mysql" seems especially popular