Improving Observability in Your Observability: Simple Tips for SREs
summary
Argues that time‑series graphics date back centuries and extracts concrete practices: Playfair’s 43 of 44 charts are time series and Minard packs six variables into the Napoleon map to show causality; recommend multivariate displays (use left/right axes for disparate units), remove chart junk, always document scales and data sources, and add sparklines (Splunk/Graphite examples, CLI brew tools) to boost data density and make SLI/SLO narratives self‑evident.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Start
- 0:14Improving Observability In Your Observability Simple tips for SRES
- 1:05What are we going to talk about
- 2:11William Playfair
- 6:29Minard's Figurative Maps
- 7:54Minard's lessons for SREs and other engineers
- 8:24Who's Edward Tufte?
- 9:14Tufte's Principles of Analytic Design
- 14:29Review of key concepts to remember
- 22:58CLI sparklines
- 23:52Take Aways and Challenges
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