Book Overflow Steve Flanders Reflects on Mastering OpenTelemetry
Nov 24, 2025
Steve Flanders, a founding member of the OpenTelemetry project and author of Mastering OpenTelemetry, shares insights into his journey from logs to observability. He discusses balancing technical depth with accessibility in his book, the vendor-neutral advantages of OpenTelemetry pipelines, and why vendors are embracing it. Steve also explores AI's evolving role in observability, challenges with context propagation, and the importance of community involvement. His reflections on continuous learning and practical advice for startups make this conversation a must-listen!
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Career Path Into OpenTelemetry
- Steve Flanders described his long involvement from OpenCensus to OpenTelemetry and his work at Omnition and Splunk.
- He explained Omnition built the precursor service that became today's OpenTelemetry Collector and led Splunk's OTEL contributions.
Timing A Book Around Tech Maturity
- Steve felt a year ago was the right time to write because OpenTelemetry had matured across traces, metrics, and logs.
- He saw a lack of broad, in-depth material and aimed to fill that gap for practitioners.
Use Publisher Structure To Teach Effectively
- Steve chose Wiley because their Mastering series enforces chapter intros and conclusions that help readers learn systematically.
- He recommends working with a publisher who shapes structure when you want practical demos and approachable pedagogy.
