Charity Majors

Where do AI norms come from?

A dialogue with Dr Cat Hicks on ethics, learning, and what we owe each other. Part one: start by listening.

Sep 21 • Charity Majors

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Confessions of an Unrepentant Slop Snob

A framework for thinking about when AI involvement is additive or a violation

Sep 14 • Charity Majors

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July 2026

Have you heard? Clickhouse is winning the observability wars!

Years ago I predicted that columnar storage would remake observability. What I didn't see coming: vendors would build it, nerf it, and sell a worse…

Jul 8 • Charity Majors

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In defense of AI mandates

When you need to execute a coordinated change on a tight timeline, a mandate might be the best and most honest way to fund it.

Jul 2 • Charity Majors

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June 2026

Is it ethical to use AI?

On externalities and engagement, the problem with purity politics, and why we need to make AI boring again

Jun 24 • Charity Majors

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AI demands more engineering discipline. Not less

If you lived through the shift from handcrafted server pets to immutable infrastructure, you should sense something oddly familiar about what's…

Jun 15 • Charity Majors

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AI enthusiasts are in a race against time, AI skeptics are in a race against entropy

Both sides are grappling with a real existential threat, and both sides feel like they are screaming into the void. There is a way to close the gap and…

Jun 2 • Charity Majors

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March 2026

Your Data Is Made Powerful By Context (so stop destroying it already)

In logs as in life, the relationships are the most important part. AI doesn't fix this. It makes it worse.

Mar 9 • Charity Majors

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My (hypothetical) SRECon26 keynote

One year ago, Fred Hebert and I delivered the closing keynote at SRECon25. Looking back on it now, I can hardly connect with how I felt then. Here's…

Mar 3 • Charity Majors

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February 2026

First I wrote the wrong book, then I wrote the right book

I'm not sure whether to say "thank you" or "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME", but this one goes out to all the people who sent me advice on buying software…

Feb 19 • Charity Majors

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Martin Fowler told me the second edition should be shorter (it's twice as long)

90% new material, a clearer mission, and a rogues gallery of contributors. The second edition of Observability Engineering is almost done.

Feb 18 • Charity Majors

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January 2026

Bring Back Ops Pride

"Operations" is not a dirty word, a synonym for toil, or a title for people who can't write code. May those who shit on ops get the operational outcomes…

Jan 19 • Charity Majors

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