Whitney and Coté discuss with Josh Berkus (Red Hat, Kubernetes contributor) how liberal and fine arts degrees (philosophy, photography, sculpture, pottery) apply to tech careers. Berkus details how early hardware experience influenced his database performance work, noting hardware&#39;s renewed relevance with AI and multi-arch computing. The conversation covers Sun Microsystems’ 1990s internet role, internal politics, and its MySQL/Postgres strategy. They examine open source&#39;s shift from end-user to vendor-driven models, foundations&#39; roles, and contributor incentives. Berkus describes Kubernetes release processes, contributor-experience programs, and its resilience to low-quality AI contributions.

You can also watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7HWKSxrZ48" rel="nofollow">the video recording of this episode</a> if you prefer that kind of thing.

Josh&#39;s <a href="https://berkus.org/" rel="nofollow">home page on the World Wide Web</a>. 
And, check out Josh&#39;s pottery store, <a href="https://www.fuzzychef.com/" rel="nofollow">Fuzzy Chef</a>.Special Guest: Josh Berkus.

<description>
 &lt;p&gt;Whitney and Coté discuss with Josh Berkus (Red Hat, Kubernetes contributor) how liberal and fine arts degrees (philosophy, photography, sculpture, pottery) apply to tech careers. Berkus details how early hardware experience influenced his database performance work, noting hardware&amp;#39;s renewed relevance with AI and multi-arch computing. The conversation covers Sun Microsystems’ 1990s internet role, internal politics, and its MySQL/Postgres strategy. They examine open source&amp;#39;s shift from end-user to vendor-driven models, foundations&amp;#39; roles, and contributor incentives. Berkus describes Kubernetes release processes, contributor-experience programs, and its resilience to low-quality AI contributions.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can also watch &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7HWKSxrZ48" rel="nofollow"&gt;the video recording of this episode&lt;/a&gt; if you prefer that kind of thing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Josh&amp;#39;s &lt;a href="https://berkus.org/" rel="nofollow"&gt;home page on the World Wide Web&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
And, check out Josh&amp;#39;s pottery store, &lt;a href="https://www.fuzzychef.com/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Fuzzy Chef&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Special Guest: Josh Berkus.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>

Whitney and Coté discuss with Josh Berkus (Red Hat, Kubernetes contributor) how liberal and fine arts degrees (philosophy, photography, sculpture, pottery) apply to tech careers. Plus, there's some Sun Microsystems and Kubernetes talk.

Episode 121: Art Degrees, Sun Microsystems, and How Kubernetes Scales Contributions, with Josh Berkus

Whitney and Coté talk with Heidi Waterhouse, co-author of the book Progressive Delivery. 

You can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsPLx6qXOs" rel="nofollow">the video of the recording</a> as well, if you&#39;re into that kind of thing.

Heidi on the World Wide Web: 
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwaterhouse/" rel="nofollow">LinkedIn</a>. 
<a href="https://heidiwaterhouse.com/" rel="nofollow">Her Website</a>. 
The book, <a href="https://progressivedelivery.com/" rel="nofollow">Progressive Delivery</a>.Special Guest: Hedi Waterhouse.

<description>
 &lt;p&gt;Whitney and Coté talk with Heidi Waterhouse, co-author of the book Progressive Delivery. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can watch &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsPLx6qXOs" rel="nofollow"&gt;the video of the recording&lt;/a&gt; as well, if you&amp;#39;re into that kind of thing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Heidi on the World Wide Web:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiwaterhouse/" rel="nofollow"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://heidiwaterhouse.com/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Her Website&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
The book, &lt;a href="https://progressivedelivery.com/" rel="nofollow"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Progressive Delivery&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Special Guest: Hedi Waterhouse.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>

Whitney and Coté talk with Heidi Waterhouse, co-author of the book Progressive Delivery. 

Episode 120: Progressive Delivery, with Heidi Waterhouse

Spotting talent, getting innovation adoption and driving use, open source, AI, and developing taste - those are the major topics Coté and Andrew discussed this week at the live reading. Also, a framework for creating the perfect burger. This was recorded at<a href="https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/" rel="nofollow"> cfgmgmtcamp 2026</a>, in Ghent, Belgium. Thanks to the staff for making it happen!

You can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t00eZ6Sws0w" rel="nofollow">the video recording of this episode</a> as well, if you&#39;re into that kind of thing.

If you missed <a href="https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/" rel="nofollow">cfgmgmtcamp</a> this year, keep an eye on cfgmgmtcamp for next year - it&#39;s a great conference to start the year with.

Check out <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewclayshafer/" rel="nofollow">Andrew in LinkedIn</a>.Special Guest: Andrew Clay Shafer.

<description>
 &lt;p&gt;Spotting talent, getting innovation adoption and driving use, open source, AI, and developing taste - those are the major topics Coté and Andrew discussed this week at the live reading. Also, a framework for creating the perfect burger. This was recorded at&lt;a href="https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/" rel="nofollow"&gt; cfgmgmtcamp 2026&lt;/a&gt;, in Ghent, Belgium. Thanks to the staff for making it happen!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can watch &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t00eZ6Sws0w" rel="nofollow"&gt;the video recording of this episode&lt;/a&gt; as well, if you&amp;#39;re into that kind of thing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you missed &lt;a href="https://cfgmgmtcamp.org/ghent2026/" rel="nofollow"&gt;cfgmgmtcamp&lt;/a&gt; this year, keep an eye on cfgmgmtcamp for next year - it&amp;#39;s a great conference to start the year with.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Check out &lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewclayshafer/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Andrew in LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Special Guest: Andrew Clay Shafer.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>

Spotting talent, getting innovation adoption and driving use, open source, AI, and developing taste - those are the major topics Coté and Andrew discussed this week at the live reading. Also, a framework for creating the perfect burger. This was recorded at cfgmgmtcamp 2026, in Ghent, Belgium. Thanks to the staff for making it happen!

Episode 119: AI, open source, talent, and more, live at cfgmgmtcamp 2026, with Andrew Clay Shafer

Coté and Whitney talk with Nathen Harvey, who leads the DORA research program at Google Cloud. They talk about what 15 years of DevOps and delivery data actually says about AI. The answer feels something like &quot;it makes you even better at what you&#39;re already good at.&quot; High-performing teams get better, while struggling teams just move faster into bottlenecks. They talk about AI-assisted software development, why throughput is rising while stability drops, how culture still beats tools, and why “user-centric” work remains stubbornly hard despite being obvious.

You can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H90fXHWwyQk" rel="nofollow">the video version of this episoode in YouTube</a>, if you prefer that kind of thing.

Check out <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathen/" rel="nofollow">Nathen in LinkedIn</a>.Special Guest: Nathen Harvey.

<description>
 &lt;p&gt;Coté and Whitney talk with Nathen Harvey, who leads the DORA research program at Google Cloud. They talk about what 15 years of DevOps and delivery data actually says about AI. The answer feels something like &amp;quot;it makes you even better at what you&amp;#39;re already good at.&amp;quot; High-performing teams get better, while struggling teams just move faster into bottlenecks. They talk about AI-assisted software development, why throughput is rising while stability drops, how culture still beats tools, and why “user-centric” work remains stubbornly hard despite being obvious.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can watch &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H90fXHWwyQk" rel="nofollow"&gt;the video version of this episoode in YouTube&lt;/a&gt;, if you prefer that kind of thing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Check out &lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathen/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Nathen in LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Special Guest: Nathen Harvey.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>

AI makes you great at what you're good at.

Episode 118: AI Doesn’t Fix Bad DevOps: Lessons from 15 Years of DORA Data, with Nathen Harvey

In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Lian, a &quot;cloud-native human&quot; with a 15-year career in tech. Lian discusses her transition from tech to performance art, her experiences in amateur musical theater, stand-up comedy, and improv theater. She talks about platform engineering, the importance of community building in tech, and balancing professional life with personal projects. They also cover her unique improv workshops for engineers at conferences and the popular KubeCon karaoke parties she organizes.

If you prefer video, you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDIlieJmS7g" rel="nofollow">watch that</a>.

Mentions:

<ul>
<li><a href="https://lianmakesthings.dev" rel="nofollow">Lian&#39;s home page on the World Wide Web</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lian-li/" rel="nofollow">Lian&#39;s LinkedIn</a>.</li>
<li>One of Lian&#39;s talks discussed: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjEuIUCbNYY" rel="nofollow">&quot;Many Cooks, One Platform: Balancing Ownership and Contribution for the Perfect Broth,&quot;</a> Lian Li, KubeCon EU 2025.</li>
<li><a href="https://kuberoke.love" rel="nofollow">Kuberoke</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://lianmakesthings.dev/services/workshop/" rel="nofollow">Lian&#39;s workshops</a>.</li>
<li>Also, <a href="https://cote.io/2026/01/08/165100.html" rel="nofollow">Coté on a magazine cover</a>.</li>
</ul>Special Guest: Lian Li.

<description>
 &lt;p&gt;In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Lian, a &amp;quot;cloud-native human&amp;quot; with a 15-year career in tech. Lian discusses her transition from tech to performance art, her experiences in amateur musical theater, stand-up comedy, and improv theater. She talks about platform engineering, the importance of community building in tech, and balancing professional life with personal projects. They also cover her unique improv workshops for engineers at conferences and the popular KubeCon karaoke parties she organizes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you prefer video, you can &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDIlieJmS7g" rel="nofollow"&gt;watch that&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mentions:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://lianmakesthings.dev" rel="nofollow"&gt;Lian&amp;#39;s home page on the World Wide Web&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lian-li/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Lian&amp;#39;s LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;One of Lian&amp;#39;s talks discussed: &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjEuIUCbNYY" rel="nofollow"&gt;&amp;quot;Many Cooks, One Platform: Balancing Ownership and Contribution for the Perfect Broth,&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; Lian Li, KubeCon EU 2025.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://kuberoke.love" rel="nofollow"&gt;Kuberoke&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://lianmakesthings.dev/services/workshop/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Lian&amp;#39;s workshops&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Also, &lt;a href="https://cote.io/2026/01/08/165100.html" rel="nofollow"&gt;Coté on a magazine cover&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Special Guest: Lian Li.&lt;/p&gt;
 </description>

In this episode, Whitney and Coté talk with Leanne, a "cloud-native human" with a 15-year career in tech. 

Episode 117: From Platform Engineering to Stand-Up Comedian, with Lian Li

Deep discussions about technology, enterprise IT, and the like


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