PreAccident Investigation Podcast PAPod 406 - Ryan Kitchens and Poeple and Systems - Part 2
9 snips
Aug 27, 2022 
Ryan Kitchens, a senior software systems engineer with a background in media and gaming, dives deep into the challenges of learning from incidents in the tech world. He highlights a study showing that fast learners often leave the software industry, impacting skill transfer. Kitchens critiques incident command bottlenecks and discusses how higher levels of abstraction can complicate failure management. He emphasizes the need for curiosity despite production pressures and expresses cautious optimism about community-led change in resilience across industries.
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Systems Are Constantly Eroding
- Todd Conklin frames systems as constantly eroding with many small breaks everywhere, especially after recent global shocks.
- He uses this to set the stage for resilience and the need for continual learning.
Fast Learners Exit, Expertise Gaps Grow
- Fast learners leave software at higher rates, creating continual gaps in expertise across companies.
- Ryan Kitchens highlights that transferable patterns and operational strategies matter more than specific technologies.
Incidents Are Distributed, Not Centralized
- Software incident response resembles a distributed virtual control room across many chat channels and tools.
- Ryan Kitchens warns that the incident commander model becomes a bottleneck as coordination costs rise.
