In a journey that spans from aquaponics farming in South Africa to a career at Grafana Labs, Chris Wilkes shares his experiences of managing a fish farm and its unexpected connection to data visualization. Initially driven by a passion for marine ecology, Wilkes embarked on an aquaponics project, combining fish farming and hydroponics to create a sustainable ecosystem. The challenges of this endeavor, including mechanical failures and steep learning curves in IoT, led to the implementation of monitoring systems using Arduino and Raspberry Pi, ultimately integrating Grafana for data visualization. This transformation provided insights into farming operations, revealing previously unnoticed patterns and enhancing efficiency. After selling the farm and transitioning to software engineering in London, Wilkes joined Grafana Labs, finding that the skills and lessons learned in farming have informed his work in software development and monitoring systems. Despite his current role, Wilkes plans to return to farming, motivated by the need for sustainable food production and the potential to leverage data visualization technologies like Grafana in future agricultural ventures.