Making sense of SRE and observability, one week at a time.
What is site reliability engineering (SRE) really about? How can I make sense of it in my organisation? How do I cut through the buzzwords and actually improve the lives of my colleagues and customers?
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When you become a people leader there is no manual. How can we not only learn leadership skills but practice them and build leadership muscle? This week I'm joined by Orion Group Limited co-founder Xiao Zhang to discuss... 👑 The challenge of transitioning into people leadership 💪 How we don't get fit by watching other people work out ⌚ Pausing as an act of active leadership 🌌 The power of slack time for creativity and systems thinking 🌊 Going below the waterline ...and much more. You can find Xiao on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiao-zhang-nz/ You can find Orion Group Limited here: https://www.oriongrouplimited.com/ Xiao mentioned Brené Brown's new book Strong Ground https://brenebrown.com/book/strong-ground/ I mentioned The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford https://itrevolution.com/product/the-phoenix-project/ I couldn't find the article on slack time but this is pretty good: https://buildrightside.com/problem-upgrade-chart You can buy Slight Reliability merch here (Note: you cannot order the mugs outside of New Zealand): https://slightreliability.digitees.co.nz/ You can find Stephen on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephentownshend/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/slightreliability.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SlightReliability Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slight_reliability/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_kiwi_sre
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About the host
Stephen has a background in SRE and performance engineering. He has worked in the industry for 15 years as both an external consultant and an internal engineer.
Our industry is full of buzzwords and exaggerations, it can be hard to know what is real or not. Stephen strives to take these complex technical concepts and to simplify and present them in a way everyone can understand and apply (and to call out when something is too good to be true).
Stephen lives in Auckland, New Zealand and currently works as a Developer Advocate for SquaredUp, as well as promoting and improving observability and SRE practices internally in the organisation.