Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • A Scary Situation

    Today is Halloween, a holiday of costumes, candy, and scary movies. My family has enjoyed scary movies over the years, though not necessarily on this date. However, the theme has me thinking about the scary situations that you’ve encountered, or maybe those that worry you in your job.

    I don’t worry about too many scary things in my job. I do get some anxiety before some presentations, and there are times I’ve been nervous before recordings, but it’s helpful for me to remember that none of these things are likely to be remembered for long if I do make a mistake. There’s just so much content produced every week.

    That thought didn’t help me years ago when I gave a keynote at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta. Most of the 600 people in the audience didn’t bother me, but my wife was there to see me for the first time and that was scary. I had to talk to myself before I went on, reminding myself to relax and just deliver the talk I’d prepared. Fortunately, I didn’t mess it up and she enjoyed it.

    As a developer, I haven’t been too scared when writing or deploying code. I came into this business watching so many bugs get thrown over the wall and deployed that I rarely worried something I submitted would have bugs. I knew there would be bugs in some code, and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Others would have reviewed my code and when a bug report came back, I’d just write new code that solved that bug (and hopefully didn’t introduce others).

    As a DBA, the scariest times are when you actually have to restore a database that matters. I’ve had CEOs, VPs, CTOs, and plenty of managers in between staring over my shoulder, asking questions or commenting on the importance of the act. When you’re bringing back a database with a bunch of log files, that creates some pressure and stress. Lucky for me, I’ve been able to perform well in those situations. If I hadn’t, perhaps I’d have never started writing or built SQL Server Central.

    What are your scary stories today? What things make you nervous or create some anxiety? I think the scariest times I’ve had in a few jobs were when companies were reorganizing and looking to lay off a portion of their staff. Those are never good days, and while I usually survived, the stress before knowing that was very scary.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Using Time Wisely

    As I get older, I realize more and more the value of time. I also realize this is a very limited quantity for me, it is getting more precious each day, and it is one of the more valuable assets I have. Time with my wife, time with my kids and my extended family is precious. Time for hobbies, work, and more is difficult to come by. Well, not work. I have to work, but it gets in the way of things at times.

    I’ve been learning to take time off from a busy life and enjoy the lack of trying to use that time. I find myself looking at email or checking some work item less and less on weekends and holidays. At least, I avoid working if I’ve had a productive week. Quite a bit of my work is independent and can be asynchronous with others. I might spend time during the week on something personal and then make-up that time on weekends. Often that’s the case when I am called to be the emergency ranch worker if someone else isn’t available.

    In trying to efficiently use time, I find myself often trying to think ahead and work on things well in advance of deadlines. I can procrastinate as much as others, but I tend to look forward a week or two all the time. This helps me avoid last-minute crunches, though sometimes I find myself stressed about multiple things that are due next week and the week after. I still have time management issues and stress, it’s just not for something due today or tomorrow.

    Usually.

    Like everyone else, I’m human. Despite my best intentions, I don’t always use time wisely. I find my moods vary throughout the month. My energy can peak or wane. My focus can be strong or weak. I’m fallible, and that in and of itself can bother me and affect my efforts. I know time is valuable, so when I haven’t had a productive day or gotten enough done, that can carry over into the next day. It might even carry over into my evening and distract me from personal things.

    As I try to be better at managing time, I am learning a few techniques. First, if I am productive, I usually lean into this. I can be very productive in a short time, so when I am in the zone and focused, I work hard. Even if this impacts something else. I might skip the gym one day, not cook dinner, and work late because when I am efficient with my time. When this happens, I’ve also learned to forgive myself for not following my plan. Sometimes my plans fall apart, even when I am the one that is often in control of the creation and execution of the daily plan.

    I’ve also learned to move away from difficult creative tasks. Whether that’s writing or assembling some code, when I don’t feel like doing that work, I move on to something else. Often administrative things, catching up on meeting recordings, or other somewhat low-focus tasks keep me using time wisely, even if less efficiently. At least I’m getting something done.

    Finally, I am lucky in that I can abandon work some days. Not any day, but sometimes things fall apart, and I accept that. I’ll handle something in my personal life, or go do something fun. I know this means I will need to make up the work, and let my wife know that my schedule has shifted, but it’s a way of remembering that time is valuable everywhere.

    Both for work and in my personal life. If I need to work on a Saturday, then I need to be sure I can recapture that time away from work somewhere else.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Good Enough

    I find that many of us that work in technology want a solution to be great. Often perfect. Computers are so good at following instructions that we expect them to work as we intend all the time. We aim for being perfect in our code and we find “good enough” to be a low bar.

    I think this is because many times we deal with code that barely works and gets deployed because it’s good enough. Maybe the code can’t handle a load or corner cases and that’s caused us some sort of stress or pain. So we don’t want “good enough”. because we’ve been burned in the past, either by our code or someone else’s.

    However, good enough means to me that it is good enough for most situations. It’s not leaving something unfinished or undone, but finishing something that works well. I often tackle small projects or minor tasks in this manner, usually because of time crunches. I consider the performance impacts, but in a realistic sense. Not all of my code will be accessed by thousands of users trying to process millions of rows. There are plenty of systems where we know the code will be thousands of rows and dozens of users. We should write the best code we can, and spend time improving our coding skills over time, but we don’t need to over-engineer code too early.

    At the same time, we should not be satisfied with code that we think will not meet the needs of our customers. Whether in function or performance. Sometimes we make quick decisions, knowing we will need to rework the code. In that case, we need to allocate time, file a bug ourselves, or do something else to ensure we revisit this code. That has been the case often with administrative code that I need to run today, but I know this will need to be run regularly over time. I might shortcut code with a cursor or loop, but plan on finding a better solution that performs better and is more robust. If the task can be automated, this means I need to include error handling, logging, and more.

    Life is a series of trade-offs. I rarely get something done as perfectly as I’d like, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to be better over time. I can chase perfection, especially in code. If I regularly learn and change how I code, I find that my “good enough” becomes better and better every month.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Remote Remote Work

    A few years ago, one of my co-workers wanted to work remotely for the winter. They received permission and spent 3 or 4 months in France, waking up early to work for an hour or two, skiing in the late morning and early afternoon, and then coming back to work more at night.

    I was quite jealous. Mostly because with family, this wasn’t an option for me. Don’t feel too bad for me as I get the chance to slide down mountains plenty during the winter.

    During the pandemic, we’ve seen various locales try to entice workers to come live there, spend money, and work remotely. It’s not simple or necessarily cheap, as many countries require workers to provide their own health coverage. However, it’s nice that there is flexibility from some locales, and from some companies. There are tax implications, so moving residences isn’t always possible.

    I love the flexibility of working remotely, which I’ve been doing for 20 years. While I get to Redgate offices 4-6 times a year and work with others, most of the time I’m at home. Occasionally at a coffee shop or restaurant around town, but not too often.

    Recently, I took advantage of this to work remotely away from home in another state. I scheduled a week trip to see my daughter play volleyball in college. Extended a weekend trip to reduce flight costs, I ended up working near her campus for a few days while she was in class. Remote from a remote spot away from the home office.

    Great for finding some balance in life, but not without challenges. I found a few instances where I didn’t have all the data I expected with me. The ergonomics were different, with hotel and coffee shop chairs and desks not being as comfortable as usual. One small screen instead of 3 large ones, no wrist rest, searching out power outlets, and other small items remind me of how much I appreciate the space I’ve set up at home.

    Still, I’m glad I was able to go and visit, without taking holiday. I’d have been on my own most of the time, so spending the day working wasn’t distracting. I hope to do this more in the future, and I hope to see more of you doing this as well to better enjoy life while continuing to earn a living.

    Steve Jones

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