Optimize All The Things

Tom Wilkie, the CTO of Grafana Labs, talks to us about his professional journey. We cover how he got into software engineering, his first startup, working as an EM at Google, and what motivated him to go back to an IC role. We talk about his time at Grafana from when they were only 25 people to now when Grafana Labs has more than a thousand employees. Tom’s journey cannot be told without diving deeper into the technical side of things - we discuss observability, distributed systems, and hard technical problems.Where to find more about Tom and Grafana Labs:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomwilkie- X - https://x.com/tom_wilkie- Grafana Labs - https://grafana.com/- Grafana Labs events - https://grafana.com/events/Where to find Bartek:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwplotka/- X - https://x.com/bwplotkaWhere to find Ivan:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-valkov/- X - https://x.com/ivvalkovAs always, feedback and questions are welcome! You can use this form -https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP90:00 - Tom’s intro7:09 - How Tom got into software engineering15:05 - Tom’s first startup 21:25 - Tom’s experience as EM at Google28:04 - Joining Weaveworks as employee number 738:51 - Tom joining Grafana45:32 - Grafana’s Third Act53:12 - Startup advice59:41 - Perseverance and motivation1:04:35 - How Grafana acquires startups1:10:25 - Where to find out more

Monica Sarbu, the CEO and founder of Xata.io, talks to us about her inspiring journey from getting into tech to building Xata - the serverless database platform for modern apps. We chat about the founding of her first company, Packetbeat, its acquisition by Elastic, and her time as a director there. We talk about mentoring, diversity, and hiring engineers that have high agency. We also cover some of the technical decisions at Xata - we even chat a bit about the Zig programming language :)Where to find more about Monica and Xata:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicasarbu- X - https://x.com/monicasarbu- Xata - https://xata.io/- pgroll - https://github.com/xataio/pgroll- Tupu - https://www.tupu.io/Where to find Bartek:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwplotka/- X - https://x.com/bwplotkaWhere to find Ivan:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-valkov/- X - https://x.com/ivvalkovAs always, feedback and questions are welcome! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9Episode breakdown:0:00 - Episode intro2:25 - Monica's introduction4:00 - Monica's software engineering background5:52 - Founding her first company Packetbeat15:30 - Elastic acquisition and being a director there25:34 - The role of managers 28:38 - Founding Tupu and diversity in tech38:44 - The founding story of Xata44:35 - Open source, serverless, and Zig vs Go51:17 - Hiring high-agency engineers1:00:37 - Where to find out more

In this episode, we talk with Jimmy Zelinskie, co-founder and CPO of AuthZed, about his journey in building a global scale OSS authorization startup. Jimmy shares insights into the creation and evolution of SpiceDB, an open-source database optimized for authorization decisions. We chat about Jimmy’s story of transitioning from an engineer to a product manager, the importance of open-source in building the business, and the strategies that helped AuthZed find its first customers. Jimmy also discusses the inspiration behind AuthZed, Google’s Zanzibar paper, and the unique challenges of building a startup grounded in cutting-edge research.Where to find more about Jimmy and AuthZed:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzelinskie/- X - https://x.com/jimmyzelinskie - Jimmy’s Github - https://github.com/jzelinskie - AuthZed - https://authzed.com/- SpiceDB on Github - https://github.com/authzed/spicedb- The Zanzibar Paper annotated by AuthZed - https://authzed.com/zanzibar- Discord - https://authzed.com/discord Where to find Bartek:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwplotka/- X - https://x.com/bwplotkaWhere to find Ivan:- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-valkov/- X - https://x.com/ivvalkovAs always, feedback and questions are welcome! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9Episode breakdown:0:00 Episode intro2:05 Jimmy’s introduction3:53 Jimmy’s software engineering background9:06 On becoming a founder14:47 Experimenting with different startup ideas20:41 The Zanzibar paper and using research in startups26:44 Finding your first customers31:56 Building SpiceDB38:11 Monetization in an OSS startup42:34 Authorization deep-dive52:19 Product management in a startup1:01:47 Where to find out more

In this episode, we talk with Michel Tricot, co-founder and CEO of Airbyte, about his journey in building a successful open-source data movement platform, the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and insights into startup culture and balancing work with family life. Michel shares his experiences from being a software engineer to leading a unicorn company, emphasizing the importance of community, open-source, and the strategic pivots that led to Airbyte's success.Where to find more about Michel and Airbyte:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheltricot/X - https://x.com/micheltricotAirbyte - https://airbyte.com/Github - https://github.com/airbytehq/airbyteAirbyte's blog - https://airbyte.com/blogWhere to find Bartek:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwplotka/X - https://x.com/bwplotkaWhere to find Ivan:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-valkov/X - https://x.com/ivvalkovAs always, feedback and questions are welcome! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

In this episode, we sit down with Frederic Branczyk, founder of PolarSignals, to explore the intersection of advanced profiling techniques, AI-driven optimizations, and the nuances of building a successful startup culture. Frederic shares his journey from a technical contributor to a startup leader, offering insights into both the technological and business aspects of running a tech company.Where to find more about Frederic and Polar Signals:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederic-branczyk/X - https://x.com/fredbranczMastodon - https://hachyderm.io/@branczPolar Signals - https://www.polarsignals.com/Parca - https://github.com/parca-dev/parca/FrostDB - https://github.com/polarsignals/frostdbPolar Signals Seed announcement - https://www.polarsignals.com/blog/posts/2024/03/12/ai-funding-and-exciting-customersLet's Profile YouTube series - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tScFlySdSAc&list=PLhTDiyZ1B3JkDCzGKp_3K3J-au054MQ_zWhere to find Bartek:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwplotka/X - https://x.com/bwplotkaWhere to find Ivan:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-valkov/X - https://x.com/ivvalkovAs always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

Today we have a very special guest, Björn Rabenstein, ultra experienced engineer, long time Prometheus maintainer. In this episode we touch on the topic of versioning and backward or forward compatibility of software APIs and interfaces. Learn how to make your code nice for others or use versioned components effectively for yourself. We discuss semver, and why you also seen many projects, escaping this model with lifetime version of v0. The main topic starts at 18m35s. References:No lens camera: https://futurism.com/the-byte/camera-no-lens-location-aiCrab: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36122270Paying for GH stars: https://the-guild.dev/blog/judging-open-source-by-github-stars?utm_source=unknownewsStack Overflow seeing lower traffic: https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/ai-news/stack-overflow-chatgpt/?utm_source=unknownewsNvidia passes 1 trillion $ of evaluation: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/30/nvidia-chipmaker-value-ai-chip-shares-artificial-intelligenceBeautifully edited by amazing Yanitsa Spassova! As always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

In this episode we discuss an important topic of productivity in our live and work. We explore often forgotten topic of motivation for our work, self-compassion, energy balance to tackle tedious tasks and healthy habits for software development, meetings and more! We also touch on the topic of social media use. References:Amazon Prime moving out of AWS Lambda: https://www.primevideotech.com/video-streaming/scaling-up-the-prime-video-audio-video-monitoring-service-and-reducing-costs-by-90Leaked memo, AI alone is not a moat: https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-we-have-no-moat-and-neitherEpic, inspiring episode about embracing death (Limitless): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11714334/Atomic Habits Book: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habitsRollup Meeting Notes Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AHgEyaNdI0YQgPnxDqF1BD1K8b-VJzFOgBAoS4IhSJo/editBeautifully edited by amazing Yanitsa Spassova! As always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

Working from a tent, prioritizing your electricity between your monitor or cooking dinner, canal boat life, and more. These are some of the things we talked about with Becky Pauley at KubeCon Europe 2023. This episode covers all the great things about the digital nomad lifestyle, but also dives into some of the challenges. Join us for the interesting story and stay for the helpful tips. As always, before the main part we cover some of the news that got our attention in the previous weeks.References:Our amazing guest, Becky Pauley: https://twitter.com/BeckyPauleyReddit's API going paid: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/18/23688463/reddit-developer-api-terms-change-monetization-aiReddit's Apollo reader thread on effects of pricing change: https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12srosz/reddit_api_going_paid_what_are_the_changes_we/A Completely Non-Technical Explanation of AI and Deep Learning: https://www.parand.com/a-completely-non-technical-explanation-of-ai.htmlYC Winter 2023 Batch summary: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/meet-the-yc-winter-2023-batchAnother columnar DB: XTDB 2.0: https://www.xtdb.com/v2Apache Arrow: https://arrow.apache.org/Talking to dead people with AI: https://futurism.com/ai-dead-woman-talk-people-funeral?utm_source=unknownewsAs always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

In this episode we do a little retrospective on the last week KubeCon EU 2023 in Amsterdam. We also share and discuss amazing answers from a few quick interviews Bartek performed with epic KubeCon attendees. You won't believe what we learned! Big THANKS to all interviewees for amazing answers: Christina, Harsh, Michael, Jimmy and Raphaël!References:KubeCon EU: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/Observability Day: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/co-located-events/observability-day/ You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj6h78yzYM2ORxwcjTn4RLAOQOYjvQ2A3Efficient Go book: https://bwplotka.dev/book/Mentoring Opportunities (as mentee, but also to mentor): https://github.com/cncf/mentoringWASM: https://webassembly.org/GitLab AI: https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2023/03/16/what-the-ml-ai/eBPF: https://ebpf.io/authzed/spicedb: https://github.com/authzed/spicedbRunning DB in browser: https://authzed.com/blog/some-assembly-requiredOpenTelemetry: https://opentelemetry.io/As always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

AI is already changing how different industries operate with tools like ChatGPT and Github Copilot. Today we talk about a new tool, k8sgpt, that gives you SRE superpowers using AI. We are joined by its creator, Alex Jones - Director of Kubernetes Engineering at Canonical. We talk about how tools that utilize AI are built, how they change our day to day work, and what the future might hold for AI in the workplace. And as always we cover the news of the week before we dive into the interview.References:Alex Jones - https://twitter.com/AlexJonesaxK8sGPT: https://k8sgpt.ai/Amazon Bedrock: https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/Amazon Code Whisperer: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-codewhisperer-free-for-individual-use-is-now-generally-available/Hacking Cars with CAN injection: https://kentindell.github.io/2023/04/03/can-injection/?utm_source=unknownewsPhind, ChatGPT for devs - https://www.phind.com/OSS Funding via Thanks Dev - https://thanks.dev/homeGithub Accelerator’s first cohort - https://github.blog/2023-04-12-github-accelerator-our-first-cohort-and-whats-next/As always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

In this episode Ivan asks Bartek to solve the problems presented in the book "The Phoenix Project". We talk about DevOps, organizational structures, the mythical 10x engineer, the value of mentors, and why Kubernetes does not just magically solve all of the above. No prior reading of "The Phoenix Project" required - we also try to keep spoilers to the minimum. As always, we also cover some of the news that got our attention this week. Show notes:The Phoenix Project: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17255186Twitter Open Sources their algorithm: https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm & https://www.wired.com/story/twitters-open-source-algorithm-is-a-red-herring/ Duolingo's Love Island April Fools Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezI5izBvZboObsidian's "Unhelper" AI assistant: https://twitter.com/obsdmd/status/1642228672923877381?s=20Razer Razer April's Fool announcement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSmM68xW5QChatGPT: The Revolutionary Bullsh*t Parrot - https://www.reasonfieldlab.com/post/chatgpt-the-revolutionary-bullshit-parrotHow to be a -10x Engineer: https://taylor.town/-10x As always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

Have you ever wondered how people find performance bottlenecks and improve them in complex systems? What tools and techniques work in real life applications? When should you stop optimizing? Well, this is the episode for you. Our first ever guest, Bryan Boreham from Grafana Labs, sits down with us and walks us over his experience of optimizing the popular open-source project Prometheus. Before the super insightful discussion on this topic, we cover the tech news from the week that got our attention. Show notes:Bryan Boreham - follow at @bborehamPrometheus - https://github.com/prometheus/prometheusDocker puts a stop to sunsetting their free team plans - https://www.docker.com/blog/no-longer-sunsetting-the-free-team-plan/ChatGPT announces plugins - https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-pluginsGithub Copilot X is announced - https://github.blog/2023-03-22-github-copilot-x-the-ai-powered-developer-experience/As always, feedback and questions are welcomed! You can use this form - https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9

episode{pod="oat"} 0 # Welcome to our first, number 0 (ofc, arrays always start from zero), episode! The first episode is about something very hands-down and actionable in the software--the middleware coding pattern! What is it? Is it under-hyped? What are the alternatives? Before the main topic, Ivan & Bartek discuss (20m) some exciting tech news from the last week. Want to ask a question or give feedback? Use this form: https://forms.gle/NmUGeqMtyP6H6mMP9