Daily Coping 23 Nov 2021

Posted on November 23, 2021 by way0utwest

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 broaden your perspective: read something different.

I tend to read a lot of fiction. If I flip through this year’s GoodReads, I see mostly books to help me escape. I tend to alternate between sci-fi, legal, mysteries, and thrillers. I sprinkle in a few coaching books and business books.

One that I found different was Thanks for the Feedback. I’m in the middle of it now, and I didn’t really want to read it. A friend recommended it, as something that helped them grow. I don’t like reviews, but I decided this would be good for me.

I found the book to be very interesting. It helped me to think about how I communicate with others, and how I might say something that is received differently. It also helps me think about how to react when someone gives me feedback.

Quite a different read, but I’ve found it fascinating for me.

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Reading Data from the Command Line in PowerShell–#SQLNewBlogger

Posted on November 22, 2021 by way0utwest

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

In every language I’ve coded in, there is a way to read input from the command line. From INPUT in BASIC, readln in PASCAL, scanf in C, read in LISP, input() in Python, and more, every language can do this.

I knew PowerShell could, and I wanted to find out how to do it. I’m building a CLI tool for SQL Saturday, and I am looking to get user input.

A quick search led me to Read-Host. I probably should have guessed this, but it does what I need. A quick example of where I started. This code gets an event number from a user and then prints if back out, along with a string created from the number:

$EventNumber = Read-Host -Prompt "Event Number:"
$DataFilename = "SQLSat$($EventNumber).yml"
# write the data
write-host("Event: $EventNumber")
write-host("File: $DataFilename")

I can run this, as shown here, and put in a number.  I typed in the first 1022 below:

2021-11-17 17_45_25-● sqlsatcli.ps1 - sqlsatwebsite - Visual Studio Code

I’ll use this to get information from the user and then produce a YAML file that will contain what’s needed to publish, or update, an event.

SQLNewBlogger

This post took me about 10 minutes to assemble. I was already working through this process and stopped to jot down an idea, save some code, and make a screenshot. That was about 2 minutes out of my day, and then I went on with coding. Later, I wrote this.

You could do the same thing. Take a minute out of your daily work, sketch a quick post, and then finish it later.

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The Complexity of Modern Systems

Posted on November 22, 2021 by way0utwest

I am a big advocate of version control and testing for your software. The main reason is that modern systems are incredibly complex, and capturing what has been done (and what is happening), along with looking for potential issues, is important. It might be critical for ensuring you have success in building software.

Part of the reason is this post on software complexity. Now I don’t think the complexity is killing software developers. I do think it adds to developers’ stress, and in poorly managed environments, the complexity makes for a poor job experience for many.  While I do think most people are smart, and they find ways to overcome this, they just don’t enjoy the process.

This is part of the reason, IMHO, that we are starting to see lots of people move to a new role, often in a new company. With remote work, there are more options, and for people with talent, they can easily leave. My recent job searches seem to show more remote job options and more demand for mid and senior level people. I think some of this is looking to get better talent in your company, and some are because experienced people are tired of poor work environments and poor code.

Modern software is big, and I don’t think any system of consequence is built by individuals anymore. There are still good projects and applications being built by a person, but once they start to grow, a team of developers is needed. This means that we have to learn how to better work together. We need to adhere to standards. We need to communicate and collaborate both in code as developers and together as humans.

While someone may understand how the entire system works, it’s unlikely that many of our staff does. If the system is large, it’s unlikely anyone completely understands, and then our ability to function as a team is incredibly important to be sure that we are building something that works well together.

To me, the complexity of modern systems emphasizes the need for teamwork and collaboration, the thing that many companies adopting DevOps struggle to emphasize.

Steve Jones

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

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Daily Coping 22 Nov 2021

Posted on November 22, 2021 by way0utwest

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 connect with someone from a different generation.

I used to think of a different generation as being someone older than me. However, these days, I tend to think younger. I make it a point to do this regularly as I coach, taking time to do more than interact with kids on the court, but also asking them how they think and view the wider world.

However, I had the chance to talk to a few people recently at a technical event, and I took time to interact with someone much younger than me. Someone early in their career, who I asked questions and tried to understand the world as they see it. I got the chance to better understand what’s important to a younger person, which is vastly different than how I view the world.

I made it a point to talk about “I think I’d do this”, rather than offer advice, counseling, or opinions on how they view things. It was quite an enjoyable conversation.

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