SRE and Complexification: Where Verbs and Nouns Do Battle

Explore a thought-provoking conference talk from SREcon25 Americas where David Woods of The Ohio State University examines the tension between resilience engineering and increasing system complexity. Delve into how Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) serves as a proving ground for resilient performance in action (SNAFU Catching) and contributes to the scientific foundations of Resilience Engineering. The 41-minute presentation analyzes how new rounds of growth and change produce "complexity penalties" and the fundamental conflict between verb-centric skills (resilience as adaptive capacity) versus noun-centric technological advancement. Learn how SRE practitioners can adapt to expanding layers of interdependencies by developing innovative approaches to anticipate problems, synchronize responses, and reframe mental models. This talk provides valuable insights for SRE professionals navigating increasingly complex systems.