Gentlest of Reminders, Don't Stop Learning

I was on the road for just over two weeks. I was able to travel around to a few places and present some sessions. But, better than that, thanks to SQL Konferenz, I was able to go to a couple of sessions and learn some stuff.

I'm lucky/cursed in my position at Redgate. We have a bunch of software, and a bunch of developers. For some reason, they seem to do quite a lot of work, expanding, enhancing and changing all those tools. And I have to learn it all. It's never ending. On top of that, I'm trying to pick up PostgreSQL (and you can read about my struggles). Not to mention, I'm absolutely not letting my existing skill set in SQL Server atrophy, so I'm trying to figure out how things work there as well. Oh, and Azure DevOps, AWS Developer Tools, Octopus, Github Actions and all the other DevOps tools & processes. Learning, non-stop learning, as you can tell, is literally a major part of the job.

It's a big part of your job too.

Sure, maybe you only, ever, work within SQL Server/PostgreSQL/Oracle/InsertYourDataToolHere. It could be you're in a position that's not going to do a cloud migration anytime soon, if ever. You may not have a burning need for automation and process improvement through building out DevOps-style deployments and testing. And you may not work for a software vendor constantly churning out new stuff. So, in this position, you can just sit back & relax. No learning needed right?

You must be joking.

Even if you're doing any of the stuff listed above, your data is growing. The estate you manage is growing. There's new stuff coming from your internal developers. You need to apply the latest service patch or upgrade to a new version of your data management system. You're hitting limitations on your servers and don't understand why. Performance is tanking in an old application. In short, you have metric tonnes of learning that you need to do, all the time, same as me.

So, if you're not learning, get on it. If you're unsure where to get started, I suggest starting with your community. Find the local meetup, user group or whatever. Go to that. Talk to people (yeah, I know). Find a PGDay in your area. Track down a Data Saturday or a SQL Saturday. Maybe go to PASS Data Community Summit with a couple of thousand of your closest friends. Pick up a book. Do something. Do everything. Keep learning, because technology isn't standing still, and you're going to need that job in the future, so prepare for it now.

Grant Fritchey

Join the debate, and respond to the editorial on the forums

There are no reliable ways to distinguish text wri...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing th...

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a 38TB st...

The growing popularity of generative AI has fueled interest in its application within cybersecurity. Here’s a status report on generative AI’s role in security operations centers.

Once more, my apologies for being late on getting ...

In this series of articles I will be sharing the c...

SQL Server's INT data type, by design, provides a ...

Statistics are updated automatically or manually r...

Learn how to upgrade SQL Server from the Evaluatio...

On September 14, 2023, Microsoft released SQL Serv...

The quality of your Gherkin scenarios can make or ...

In this blog post, we'll explore a method for stripping these HTML tags from your text data using SQL Server. Let us explore the post. First appeared on SQL SERVER...

Over time, SQL has evolved and offers two distinct styles for performing JOIN operations: the old-style comma-separated join and the more modern explicit JOIN syntax. First appeared on SQL SERVER...

You use the LIMIT clause to quickly browse and rev...

Number of cores spark.executor.cores controls the ...

The Databricks Command Line Interface (CLI) allows...

Learn how to enable GitHub Advanced Security for A...

We are very happy to announce the private preview ...

We got a new issue when our customer found provisi...

Today, I am providing an update on the supported c...

There is sometimes a misconception about the usage...

When connecting to Azure SQL Database, it's important to understand the type of connection established. Azure offers two primary connection policies: Proxy and Redirect. Knowing which one you're using...

Is the process of testing your backups something y...

While daylight is getting shorter in the Northern ...

Learn about Amazon Athena, how it works, why you w...

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) io2 and io...

Starting today, Swift developers who write code fo...

Amazon just announced new X2iedn instance types for Amazon RDS SQL Server. They’re a sweet deal for people who want a high-performance managed database, with really fast cores and...

Shared Access Signature (SAS) link exposed a stora...

Today, I worked on a service request that our cust...

Learn how to use the Google Cloud Platform to shar...

Today I’m presenting at DataMospit, the most met...

This week the cost of the PASS Data Community Summ...

Conferences are where vendors and security researc...

We live in a tech-enabled world, but for organizations to advance world-changing innovations, they need skilled people who can build, install, and maintain the systems that underlie them. Finding...

In 2017, BP took on a cloud-first approach that co...

Successfully juggling multiple clouds can sometime...

Cloud computing is having a moment. No longer an e...

The $Error Variable in PowerShell contains all err...

Some research shows that an estimated 65% percent ...

The other day I was trying to numerically integrat...

The massive disruptions of the last few years have made clear how critical it is for businesses to be resilient. Some companies flexed successfully with the changes, while others...

AI-based business models and products that use gen...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasin...

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were created to empower individuals with greater control over their personal information. Both laws regulate the...

As data science continues to evolve, new tools and technologies are being developed to help individuals and organizations streamline their workflows, improve efficiency, and drive better results. One of...

After 23+ years DBDebunk.com has undergone a sligh...

Database professionals of the world – I have a q...

In today’s dynamic business landscape, the abili...

Product information is a powerful commodity in today’s digital economy. Making it accessible can let consumers know if an item contains allergens, help retailers respond swiftly to product recalls,...

Your data is one of your most important assets, and the database – the home of it all – has long been the unsung hero in many a business....

Jenkins is an open-source multi-platform software ...

Any organization that aims for reliable, online de...

I saw someone struggling with getting started with...

Did you know that you can embed one graph inside a...

Graph databases play a key role in fraud detection...

I am excited to announce the availability of Build...

Although Intel’s annual Innovation event doesn�...

THE VIDEO THE SYNOPSIS In this video, we use GitHu...

The enthusiasm for AI and its applications is reaching a nadir, according to an August 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle press release, where generative AI is nearly perched atop the...

Generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), will play a crucial role in the future of customer and employee experiences, software development, and more. Building a solid foundation in...

Learn about personas when working with Microsoft F...

Reading Time: 5 minutes In this post I want to co...

This release includes new features and quality imp...

A Shared Access Signature (SAS) link exposed 38TB ...

Download the notebook used on this blog I explained in a previous article how the Tables in a lakehouse are V-Order optimized. We noticed this configuration depends on our...

Workspaces are a way to organize and manage conten...

Reading Time: 2 minutes In this post I want to raise awareness about the fact that the new Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse Target Platform is now included as...

Wanting to edit your Direct Lake Power BI Dataset ...

Microsoft is expanding its existing partnership wi...

Let us explore Learn MySQL : Path to Data Manageme...

A Little About Select Queries That Cause Writes In...

Video by: Reid HavensLearn an improved way to merg...

In this article, we look at how parameter sniffing...

Attribution SQL Server doesn’t do much to help y...

Often Asked Sometimes people will ask me penetrating questions like “why does SQL Server choose a bad execution plan?” or “why is this query sometimes slow?” Like many things...

Why Shareable Cloud Connections solve Power BI con...

DESCRIPTION By focusing on a few key tricks, you can solve the majority of your Power BI issues and achieve big wins with your reports. We'll cover a range...

I’ve been an independent consultant for almost 2...

From solutions engineers and students to analysts ...

A pledge to solve the skills and talent shortage b...

A new survey reveals that software engineering tal...

In April, Cybersecurity Ventures reported on extre...

Organizations are turning to automation, citizen d...

MFA may go a long way in improving password securi...

The often-overused phrase “digital transformation” instills a sense of excitement and progress for many executives. But for some business leaders, digital transformation means intimidation or mystery. When the former group is...

In this blog post, I will be showing how to combin...

One of the primary reasons to implement RLS is to ...

Cybercriminals love passwords. They’re simple to...

CISOs can refine their soft skills to help get the...

The bug has a CVSS score of 9.6 and allows unautho...

The group's use of malware that forces Windows com...

The GitLab code hijacks computer resources to mine...

The mobile company states that the issue was due t...

Cloud adoption is driving secure browsers' moment ...

Though widely used in many organizations, the conc...

The intercoms are used in thousands of apartments ...

The nature of cloud environments means security an...

If you happen to be using C# there is a very easy ...

If you haven’t already heard, SQL Server 2022  ...

In this article, we look at how to use T-SQL to ro...

If you are looking to better manage Linux environm...

The new Linux Foundation project aims to build a u...

MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of our series...

Microsoft is set to enhance how organizations harn...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Have you ever repeated a word...

Cisco's surprise agreement could reshape secure in...

This guide explores how to manage Linux users and groups for better system security.

We’re rolling towards conference season and the Azure Data Studio engineers have been working hard on two things:   adding new functionality improving stability and performance within the application   As always, new features...

Flyway Desktop includes version control features w...

A database model is a standard document that represents the logical design and structure of a database. If we save a model each time Flyway creates a new version...

Jake Appelbaum’s PhD thesis contains several new revelations from the classified NSA documents provided to journalists by Edward Snowden. Nothing major, but a few more tidbits. Kind of amazing that...