DisrespectfulToDirt

What skills are required to be an SRE member? Are you hardware engineers? Software guys? Do you write shell scripts? Program Lego robots to drive around datacenters all day turning servers off-and-on?

I get what you're saying, but "They let you work on nights and weekends" doesn't exactly sound like a perk.

I feel like I've read about 20 different versions of what the government is actually doing around data collection, programs like PRISM, and how involved companies like Google are. In your opinion, what's been the most accurate source of information around these topics? Is it John Oliver? I'm guessing John Oliver.