Progressive escalation

11 May, 2026 • 121 words • 1 min

A pattern I keep stumbling upon: start with the gentlest (softest?) action, then escalate only when it didn’t properly go through:

Killing processes. Start with SIGINT. Then SIGTERM. Finally SIGKILL. murder(1) encapsulates that.
ArgoCD syncing. Start with a normal sync. Then sync with server-side apply. Next, sync with --force. Finally, sync with --replace.
Business negotiations. Start with a reasonable offer. Then converge, little by little. If that fails, walk away.
Connectivity issues. Turn the Wi-Fi off and on again. Next, connect to another Wi-Fi hotspot and then back to the desired one. Finally, completely reboot your device. No luck yet? Then reboot the router.

Different domains, same shape: cheap and reversible first, slowly converting to (more) expensive and “more” irreversible last.