Advice I Like: Tipping

Posted on April 11, 2025 by way0utwest

When in doubt, overtip – from Excellent Advice for Living

This is close to my heart, since I spent a lot of time in college and after working as a waiter and bartender.

In the US we have a culture of 15-20% of tipping at restaurants. There are also guidelines for people handling your baggage, valets, etc. In the EU/Asia, often tipping isn’t a common thing, but that is changing a bit. I’m less familiar there, so this is my US view.

I like to tip for service, but I also know that many people in restaurants get a very low wage. When I started working as a waiter, I got US$2.01/hour. When I stopped, I was still getting $2.01/hr. In that time, the minimum wage went from $3.35 to $5.25. The reason my wage stayed low is that it was assumed I made tips that raised me to the minimum or higher.

My view is that if I can’t tip, I don’t go out. I tip 15% as the service for someone bringing me food and drinks. Even if the service isn’t great, the person deserves to be paid for their work and they aren’t really getting that from the establishment.

If they do a good job and are pleasant, I usually tip 20%. If they’re great I go higher.

However, if I’m not sure, or maybe I realize I might not be in a good mood or distracted, I overtip. Especially for breakfast service.

It’s a few dollars for me, but it makes a big difference to someone else’s life.

Note: The current post-pandemic world where every counter service place adds tips also annoys me. I think most of these people are being paid minimum wage and I don’t often tip, but I do when people are pleasant. Or I appreciate their being there. I always tip at the airport counters because those people are driving a long way and I really, really appreciate they are open at 6m for my early flights.

I’ve been posting New Words on Fridays from a book I was reading, however, a friend thought they were a little depressing. They should be as they are obscure sorrows. I like them because they make me think.

To counter-balance those, I’m adding in thoughts on advice, mostly from Kevin Kelley’s book. You can read all these posts under the advice tag.

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Republish: The Changing Nature of Data

Posted on April 11, 2025 by way0utwest

Today I’m in Dallas, coaching 14 year olds in a volleyball tournament. This is our last travel trip with the team, and this is day 1. Hopefully we get a good draw and have some success.

While I’m wearing earplugs in a large convention center with 1,000 screaming teenage girls, you get to re-read The Changing Nature of Data.

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Part-Time DBAs

Posted on April 9, 2025 by way0utwest

Some of you reading this are database administrators (DBAs) who manage systems as their full-time job. Others of you might be developers, analytics people, or someone else who has another job, but you get stuck with managing the database somehow. I’ve seen a receptionist and a dental hygienist act in this role. We may call you the accidental DBAs, though that doesn’t imply you are good or bad at managing databases. I got into this line of work as an accidental DBA who was also a developer.

No matter what your job title, my guess is that you aren’t over-staffed at your organization. Likely you wish you had one (or more) more person to help keep up with the work. It seems that we never have enough time to get everything done in a week. And that’s with a full staff. What do you do when someone is sick or goes on vacation? If you’re like me, you get further behind and feel extra stress while your coworker is out of the office.

There is another way, and I thought this piece had a great title: Having a Part-time Database Administrator Can Help Improve your Bottom Line. It’s from DCAC, a consulting company that provides remote DBA services. There are other companies like this, such as Procure SQL, Straight Path Solutions, Dallas DBAs, and more. All of these companies are available to help augment or relieve pressure on your staff.

The piece makes a good argument that often your staff is busy and might not have some of the specialized training or advanced skills that might help solve complex performance issues, architect HA solutions, perform cloud migrations, and more. For many companies, it can be hard to acquire these types of skills, and even if you have a plan, it can be expensive. What if your expert is out of town when you need them. What if you train them and they leave? I believe in training people, but I also know that you have to be able to augment your staff at times.

Using trusted partners to help you improve parts of your business is something companies do in many ways. We might employ a handyman, but would still hire an outside plumber for some work, especially if it is a large job. Why not do the same thing with your technical staff?

These companies might seem expensive when you look at their rates, but using them part-time, in strategic places, can often help your bottom line.

Steve Jones

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

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

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T-SQL Tuesday #185–Being a Video Star

Posted on April 8, 2025 by way0utwest

tsqltuesdayThis month we have an interesting invite. Erik Darling is the host, and since he does a lot of video blogs, he’s asking for a video submission for T-SQL Tuesday. The topic and content is up to each of us, but the format is video.

That’s funny as I’m writing this blog, but the content below is in the video. What’s in there? You have to watch.

I’m also looking for hosts for the future and have a few slots in 2025 still available for H2. I’ll also note that any month could be a video post for the topic if you want, though I suspect a few hosts might not love having to watch videos. Some, however, will love it.

My Submission – Testing the Flat File Wizard

Here’s my submission:

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