Seeing the World Differently with a Coach

Posted on August 5, 2020 by way0utwest

I ran across an article recently that got me to stop and really think about how I proceed through life and who my coaches, confidants, and mentors are in the world. There are a few people I lean on, and while I don’t get the same advice from them as in this piece, I did find this to be a series of things in this post that made me stop and think.

Leo Widrich is a coach to CEOs, founders, and executives.  Last year he coached 101 people and wrote about a few takeaways. It is an interesting read, and paints many of these executives with feelings, emotions, insecurities, and other frailties that I have. I suspect many others feel the same way in their lives.

Each of these items made me think a bit, but perhaps the one that had the most impact on me was to think about non-attachment. I think this might be my biggest struggle, to accept difficult situations, and not lash out or get upset, but let the emotions wash over me, experience them, and then let them go. I struggle to do this without some sort of reaction, or most often, overreaction. I have recognized this a few times as I get older and gotten better at experiencing things without a out sized emotional response, but I still have work to do.

Maybe the best quote for me was at the top: “… people have heard me say that I think it quite reckless and silly for founders and other executives to go through their life and business world (when you can afford it) without a trusted mentor, coach, advisor or therapist.” I actually think this is something most people need, especially those in stressful situations. I don’t know you need to pay a life coach, though a therapist is often a good idea. A good adviser, someone trusted and with your best interests at heart is invaluable as you go through life. I think I have a couple of them, and I’m glad I do.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

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Daily Coping 5 Aug 2020

Posted on August 5, 2020 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.

Today’s tip is to go for a drive or a solitary walk and enjoy the changing scenery.

This tip actually came from my wife. I was a little overwhelmed by the announcement of various companies and organizations extending their lockdown into the fall. This includes Redgate, where it seems like we’ve abandoned any changes in 2020 and this is our way of working until at least 2021. If schools don’t open, then maybe not until H2 2021.

In any case, she suggested going for a drive as a relatively safe way of changing our environment. I wasn’t sure, but I agreed. So one afternoon, she stopped work early and we headed out. No real destination in mind, but I drove a random route through Denver, heading north. It was good to wander through some places I haven’t been in a long time, and after a couple hours, I looped over to my son’s apartment, grabbed him for a light meal, and then heading back home.

A wasted 4-5 hours of not getting thing done, but a good coping mechanism for me.

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Quick SSMS Tip: Map Mode for Code–#SQLNewBlogger

Posted on August 5, 2020 by way0utwest

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

In recent versions of SSMS, there’s been an addition to the query windows that I find helpful and useful. This is the map mode for code, and it means that when you have a large script, you can get a quick view of where you are in the file, and where you code is located.

First, turning this on. In the Options for SSMS, select the Text Editor section on the left, then expand the All Languages item. There is a Scroll Bars section to select. When you pick this, on the right you will see the Behavior section near the bottom. The default is bar mode, but you can switch this to map mode.

2020-07-23 16_44_26-Window

When you do that, if you open a script that is bigger than your query window, you will see a map of the code, along with a light colored bar that shows where you are in the code.

In the image below, Glenn Berry’s diagnostic script is open, and  I have actual code near the middle of my screen, and on the right, you can see the pink just at the bottom of the oval that’s lighter in color than the map.

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This is a little hard to describe, but if you turn this on and experiment, you’ll get an idea of what happens.

Let me add some blank links to this script. When I do that, I can see the map expand with some gray spaces near the top.

2020-07-24 10_46_23-Window

You can also get a preview of code by putting the cursor on the map to the right. Below I’ve put the cursor on the right side, above the current location in the query window. I see a preview of the code, while I see the locator bar below the preview, showing me where I am in the code file.

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Map mode is an interesting way to manage large code files, which sometimes occur in stored procedures and complex queries. While I would hope that most people don’t have hundreds of lines of code in any one file, I do know some do. Map mode can help.

SQLNewBlogger

This was a question someone asked me in a presentation. It took me almost as long to type an explanation as it did to take a few screenshots. Adding a little text made this a 10 minute effort.

This is the type of thing that you can do, showing how this might help you with some code that is complex and harder to navigate. In addition, this is a nice way to show you are honing your craft and learning to use your tools.

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Real World DevOps

Posted on August 4, 2020 by way0utwest

One of the more interesting aspects of my job is talking about building software with customers. As I do more of this over time, the discussion have changed from “what is DevOps?” to “how do we get started in DevOps” to “how do we improve our DevOps process?” These days so many customers have bought into some aspects of DevOps that the last one is quite common. There are still a number of companies trying to get started with DevOps in some way, but very few people I speak with have no idea of what DevOps is or how why it can improve your company.

Of course, I’m not sure there’s a great standard definition of DevOps. I often lean towards Gene Kim’s Three Ways or Microsoft’s broad view of the principles. Ultimately, most of the practical things that I find myself discussing are how to smooth the process of integrating code from developers and getting it transferred to production. Everyone wants this to go smoother, with mistakes caught earlier, and with compliance with whatever internal rules, regulatory mandates, and customer demands exist.

Grant had an interesting conversation with a few customers recently and wrote a blog about the conversation. There are a few items that resonate with me, and things that I like to emphasize to customers. The experiences from Stuart and Chris are common in any journey to improve your software process.

People need to test and measure. While testing has gained traction in the application development world, it’s still fairly new to database people. However, as people try to reduce mistakes and problems, often from simple issues, they adopt more testing. They also start to realize that having instrumentation to help measure the impact of changes is important to learn what to test and watch out for.

Starting small is important as well. While there are many, many commonalities in all my customers, the way they solve these with their teammates, and the order in which they solve them, varies. Even if you were to end up with the same VCS, build process and deployment script as someone else, the journey will be different. The challenges from internal people and processes, the evolution of habits in your team with vary. You need to find your own path.

So start small, with a few people, let them learn and then teach others. Let them build up knowledge, habits, and skills that others can adopt. That’s how most things work in the world. A few people discover something and then many follow their footsteps. If you want to build a better software process, find someone to start doing it. When they find something that works, the rest of the organization can stand on their shoulders.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

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