The last-write-wins clock was wrong, and I wrote it

<h2> The problem </h2> <p>We had a nightly billing-reconciliation job that was only supposed to run once. To enforce that across three worker instances, we did the standard thing:

<p>Someone left a comment on my last post and then deleted it before I could reply. I am going to answer it anyway, because it said the thing better than I have:</p> <blockquote>

<p>I spent years operating databases for payment platforms, where a lost write isn't a bug, it's a regulatory conversation. That environment teaches you to read the phrase "the