some more drafting

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi b/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi
index 573a88ef..71c38fec 100644
--- a/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi
@@ -1,34 +1,38 @@
-## The Heroic Facade and Team Dynamics: Rethinking Success in SRE
+## System Design and Incident Analysis: Building Resilience in the SRE Landscape
 
-The realm of Site Reliability Engineering is punctuated by the constant ebb and flow of system challenges. While individual excellence is commendable, the overarching belief in the SRE culture should be that true success lies in cohesive teamwork and not in individual heroics.
+A significant portion of the work revolves around system design and incident analysis.
 
-The allure of the "hero" is undeniable. There's a certain appeal in being the one who swoops in, fixes critical incidents, and saves the day. However, this hero culture, while often romanticised, has its pitfalls. Heroes are necessary, no doubt, but a hero culture can often obscure the collaborative essence of SRE. Recognising that heroes do their best work as part of a team is a profound acknowledgement that true heroes don't need a hero culture to excel.
+The first axiom is the acceptance of a bitter truth: things will always break. No matter the precision of which a system is crafted, the inevitability of failures looms large. However, what distinguishes a well-designed system from a mediocre one is its ability to minimise and contain cascading failures. These failures, if left unchecked, can spiral into global outages with come with consequences.
 
-The danger of a hero-driven approach is that it can lead to an over-reliance on specific individuals. The assumption that certain team members will always be there to address and mitigate issues can be a dangerous precedent. It fosters a reactive culture rather than a proactive one. Instead of developing inherently more resilient and reliable systems, the organisation starts relying on these heroes as a Band-Aid® solution, masking deeper systemic problems.
+There's a growing emphasis on building resilient systems to avoid such cascading failures to circumvent this. Such resilience requires foresight in system design, wherein potential weakpoints are identified and addressed before deployed to production. Prevention is better than cure. The primary objective is ensuring that services remain uninterrupted and dependable.
 
-A further dimension to this issue is the impact on team morale. Continually being in the spotlight, heroes might be inadvertently sidelining other team members, leading to feelings of underappreciation or undervaluation. Such a dynamic can hinder sharing knowledge, collaboration, and preparation – the pillars that successful SRE teams are built on.
+Yet, despite these preventative measures, when incidents do arise, their analysis becomes a goldmine of learning. Every incident exposes gaps within the system. Instead of attributing these incidents to nebulous concepts like "human error," the onus is on dissecting them to uncover underlying systemic issues. Whether it's a tooling gap where operational tools prove insufficient or an operational expertise gap where engineers lack critical skills, incident analysis shines a light on these deficiencies.
 
-However, this isn't to say that individual excellence should be curbed. Instead, it's about shifting the narrative. Building a team culture based on collaboration ensures that knowledge sharing becomes second nature. Such an environment propels teams towards a dynamic where preparation and proactive measures are valued over-reactive heroics. When success stories are shared as a collective win, it boosts team morale and fosters a sense of shared responsibility.
+In doing so, incident analysis is about rectifying the immediate issue and learning and evolving the system design. Every incident offers an opportunity, a feedback loop, to refine the system further. Through rigorous postmortems focusing on customer impact, organisations can distil valuable lessons. These lessons, when incorporated, make the system more robust and less susceptible to similar failures in the future.
 
-In the broader spectrum of SRE, it's also crucial to recognise the silent work – the preventive measures, the well-thought-out systems, the meticulous planning – that ensures incidents don't occur. This proactive approach often goes unnoticed because, in a well-functioning system, the absence of issues is the norm. But this 'silence' is a testament to a team working harmoniously, with every member contributing towards system reliability.
+Moreover, as systems grow more complex, the importance of observability tools cannot be overstated. These tools, designed to query against high cardinality data, provide granular insights into system operations. They enable engineers to diagnose problems rapidly, especially in the chaotic aftermath of an incident, giving clarity amidst the turmoil.
 
-To conclude, while the heroics in SRE can often be the stuff of legends, it's vital to see beyond this facade. The countless hours of teamwork, collaboration, and shared responsibility lie in the shadows of these heroic acts. The future of SRE lies not in individual heroics but in teams that operate like well-oiled machines, with every cog, big or small, playing its part to perfection.
+In conclusion, the symbiotic relationship between system design and incident analysis underscores the evolving ethos of SRE. While impeccable system design lays the foundation for reliable operations, incident analysis ensures that this foundation remains robust and dynamic, adapting to challenges. Together, they form the pillars of a resilient, customer-centric service environment that stands the test of time.
 
-## System Design and Incident Analysis: Building Resilience in the SRE Landscape
+Add paragraph about product wants features, but observability is often an afterthought. So often, during an incident, people start agreeing, and then it was already too late.
 
-In the intricate domain of Site Reliability Engineering, a significant portion of the professional narrative revolves around system design and incident analysis.
+=> add 6 minutes to wt.
 
-The first axiom in the world of system reliability is the acceptance of a bitter truth: things will always break. No matter the precision or the prowess with which a system is crafted, the inevitability of failures looms large. However, what distinguishes a well-designed system from a mediocre one is its ability to minimise and contain cascading failures. These failures, if left unchecked, can spiral into global outages with dire consequences.
+## The Heroic Facade and Team Dynamics: Rethinking Success in SRE
 
-There's a growing emphasis on building resilient systems to avoid such cascading failures to circumvent this. Such resilience is a testament to the foresight in system design, wherein potential chokepoints and vulnerabilities are identified and fortified. Prevention, as the age-old adage goes, is indeed better than cure. This is particularly pertinent to SRE, whose primary objective is ensuring that services remain uninterrupted and dependable.
+The realm of Site Reliability Engineering is punctuated by the constant ebb and flow of system challenges. While individual excellence is commendable, the overarching belief in the SRE culture should be that true success lies in cohesive teamwork and not in individual heroics.
 
-Yet, despite these preventative measures, when incidents do arise, their analysis becomes a goldmine of learning. Every incident, irrespective of its severity, exposes gaps within the system. Instead of attributing these incidents to nebulous concepts like "human error," the onus is on dissecting them to uncover underlying systemic issues. Whether it's a tooling gap where operational tools prove insufficient or an operational expertise gap where engineers lack critical skills, incident analysis shines a light on these deficiencies.
+The allure of the "hero" is undeniable. There's a certain appeal in being the one who swoops in, fixes critical incidents, and saves the day. However, this hero culture, while often romanticised, has its pitfalls. Heroes are necessary, no doubt, but a hero culture can often obscure the collaborative essence of SRE. Recognising that heroes do their best work as part of a team is a profound acknowledgement that true heroes don't need a hero culture to excel.
 
-In doing so, incident analysis is about rectifying the immediate issue and learning and evolving the system design. Every incident offers an opportunity, a feedback loop, to refine the system further. Through rigorous postmortems focusing on customer impact, organisations can distil valuable lessons. These lessons, when incorporated, make the system more robust and less susceptible to similar failures in the future.
+The danger of a hero-driven approach is that it can lead to an over-reliance on specific individuals. The assumption that certain team members will always be there to address and mitigate issues can be a dangerous precedent. It fosters a reactive culture rather than a proactive one. Instead of developing inherently more resilient and reliable systems, the organisation starts relying on these heroes as a Band-Aid® solution, masking deeper systemic problems.
 
-Moreover, as systems grow more complex, the importance of observability tools cannot be overstated. These tools, designed to query against high cardinality data, provide granular insights into system operations. They enable engineers to diagnose problems rapidly, especially in the chaotic aftermath of an incident, giving clarity amidst the turmoil.
+A further dimension to this issue is the impact on team morale. Continually being in the spotlight, heroes might be inadvertently sidelining other team members, leading to feelings of underappreciation or undervaluation. Such a dynamic can hinder sharing knowledge, collaboration, and preparation – the pillars that successful SRE teams are built on.
 
-In conclusion, the symbiotic relationship between system design and incident analysis underscores the evolving ethos of SRE. While impeccable system design lays the foundation for reliable operations, incident analysis ensures that this foundation remains robust and dynamic, adapting to challenges. Together, they form the pillars of a resilient, customer-centric service environment that stands the test of time.
+However, this isn't to say that individual excellence should be curbed. Instead, it's about shifting the narrative. Building a team culture based on collaboration ensures that knowledge sharing becomes second nature. Such an environment propels teams towards a dynamic where preparation and proactive measures are valued over-reactive heroics. When success stories are shared as a collective win, it boosts team morale and fosters a sense of shared responsibility.
+
+In the broader spectrum of SRE, it's also crucial to recognise the silent work – the preventive measures, the well-thought-out systems, the meticulous planning – that ensures incidents don't occur. This proactive approach often goes unnoticed because, in a well-functioning system, the absence of issues is the norm. But this 'silence' is a testament to a team working harmoniously, with every member contributing towards system reliability.
+
+To conclude, while the heroics in SRE can often be the stuff of legends, it's vital to see beyond this facade. The countless hours of teamwork, collaboration, and shared responsibility lie in the shadows of these heroic acts. The future of SRE lies not in individual heroics but in teams that operate like well-oiled machines, with every cog, big or small, playing its part to perfection.
 
 ## Monitoring, Observability, and the SRE Arsenal: Navigating the Nuances of System Reliability