Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Developer Optimism

    Developers, in general, are very optimistic about the code they write. This is likely one cause of their estimates of the time required being low, as well as the various bugs that slip through because of corner cases that appear for the problem being solved. Often developers think they’ve considered the various ways this code ought to work and covered all the possibilities. Usually we find they’ve not thought about the problem from other perspectives and need to adjust their code.

    They often also feel that their code is superior to others, and that they can examine a problem in a new way. One of the reasons that I think many developers want to rewrite systems in some new technology or new way, embracing the Not-Invented-Here way of looking at other people’s code. They want to write their own solution.

    Of course, many developers these days don’t eschew all code from others. Usually, it’s just other people in their organization, as a developer will embrace some random open source project they’ve discovered, sure that using this library/language/whatever will make their code better. While I do think there are examples of some new tech that is better than what’s around, I don’t know that any of them are a panacea. While F# is praised in many circles as better than C#, it’s not widely used, at least according to surveys of the top programming languages in use (IEEE, SO). It must not be better enough to get more projects to use it.

    What is widely used is SQL. In fact, if we look t0 other database languages, nothing else is close. While I’m sure plenty of those C# and Java programmers use LINQ or some ORM to produce the SQL code, I don’t know many competent or highly regarded developers that can’t write some SQL code or don’t regularly write SQL.

    There are some interesting ruminations on the optimism of developers in this piece. It made me smile, and I like the practical ending. While you can debate and discuss things, ultimately we need to ship code. And we are almost always better off using a technology we know rather than searching for a perfect new one to solve our problems.

    When working with databases, relational or even most of the popular NoSQL ones, this means knowing SQL. And when trying to solve our database problems, in many cases, this means learning to better write SQL and build relational entities, not abandoning our platform for some new shiny one that we think will make everything run smoother.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 7 Sep 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to do something small, but different today to make yourself smile.

    I’ve been working on my diet and health this year, focusing on a better diet, smaller portions, etc. It’s been good in a few ways, I’ve lost weight, I cook more and try new things, which the family is enjoying. Just last night I made a French Onion Chicken Bake, which replaced the previous Chicken Souvlaki as a favorite for one of my sons. I also did Sarah Leah Chase’s Scalloped Tomatoes, a new recipe and everyone enjoyed it.

    In general, I follow a fairly narrow diet well, and I’ve gotten used to being a bit hungry after the gym and driving home rather than getting a snack in town. Quick snacks are rarely healthy, and cutting them out has helped.

    However, I came out of the gym the other day after a mid morning workout. I needed to run a few errands, and while stopping for a black coffee, I decided to treat myself and walk next door for a breakfast burrito. There’s a new shop that my wife and kids love, and I’ve stopped there a few times.

    A small thing, and I made sure to adjust the rest of my day not to add a bunch of calories, but it was a nice treat for me.

  • Daily Coping 6 Sep 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to encourage or cheer on someone younger than you without opinions, suggestions, or teachings.

    This is hard. As a parent, I often want to offer suggestions on how things could be better. As a coach, it’s my job.

    However.

    I find that sometimes it’s just good to sit back, cheer, and watch. No opinion, nothing other than “good job” or “great”. It’s what I tell parents to do when they watch their kids play on my team.

    This is a time of year I get to do that. I usually go watch the kids that I’ll coach over the winter when they play in high school. No comments, no coaching, no “do this”, just “it’s great to see you play.”

    I’ve learned they have plenty of things they wish they’d done better. I’ll give them things in a few months, but for now it’s just cheering and clapping.

  • Daily Coping 5 Sep 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to have a friendly chat with someone you don’t know well.

    In general, I don’t chit chat or strike up conversations. I go through airports and on planes with headphones doing my own thing.

    However, there are times I will start a conversation. Recently I was at the gym for volleyball activities. It’s a new place for me, and I don’t know many other coaches. A lot of them are younger, and they will look at their phones when nothing is going on. Like a lot of younger people. And older people as well.

    I greeted someone and got a hi back. I could have dropped things, but I asked a couple questions, talked about plans for the day, and got them to open up a bit. While I am introverted, part of what I enjoy about coaching is time with other coaches, tackling a similar challenge. It was a nice 5 minutes chat before we went to work.