Episode 104
| July 07, 2017
| 60 minutes
Keeping up with Technology
Do you have any experience with [Insert random technology]? Your heart starts to race and your palms get a little sweaty. You don’t want to say no–we’re tech folks–we know stuff, but there are so many new things to learn! How are you supposed to keep up with it all? In this episode, we chat with Eugene Meidinger about his thoughts on keeping up and his ideas on the most important learning components.
Compañero Conference
How the SQL CAT team monitors databases on Linux
Big Data or Pokémon?
Eugene on Twitter
Eugene on LinkedIn
Eugene’s Blog
Episode Quotes
“Keeping up with technology itself, like it’s impossible.”
“One of the important things is having awareness on what the problem is and what the challenges are.”
“One of the things that we’re afraid of is our skills decaying.”
Listen to Learn
01:08 How do you keep up with technology?
01:43 Eugene’s points on keeping up with technology
05:20 People who keep up with technology
06:13 How to stay relevant when it seems impossible to keep up with technology?
07:28 Generalization and specialization
13:03 Developing mastery and expertise
15:40 Steve’s experience in teaching a DBA class at a university
17:04 Generalization examples, job interview process
18:14 Rich mental model
20:25 Analogy of keeping up with technology as radioactive decay
23:00 Three things to have a longer “half life” with IT knowledge
26:30 Big Data or Pokémon site
29:20 Things that last: People Skills
30:31 The idea of having a periodic table of skills
31:30 Understanding theory, fundamentals and internals
35:03 Discussion summary
37:03 SQL Family questions
Our Guest
Eugene Meidinger
Starting out as an accidental DBA and developer, Eugene Meidinger now focuses primarily on BI consulting. He has been working with SQL Server for 6 years now, and is certified in Querying and Administering SQL Server 2012. He is a Pluralsight author on Power BI and also co-leads the Pittsburgh Power BI user group.
Meet the Hosts
Carlos Chacon
With more than 10 years of working with SQL Server, Carlos helps businesses ensure their SQL Server environments meet their users’ expectations. He can provide insights on performance, migrations, and disaster recovery. He is also active in the SQL Server community and regularly speaks at user group meetings and conferences. He helps support the free database monitoring tool found at databasehealth.com and provides training through SQL Trail events.
Eugene Meidinger
Eugene works as an independent BI consultant and Pluralsight author, specializing in Power BI and the Azure Data Platform. He has been working with data for over 8 years and speaks regularly at user groups and conferences. He also helps run the GroupBy online conference.
Kevin Feasel
Kevin is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and proprietor of Catallaxy Services, LLC, where he specializes in T-SQL development, machine learning, and pulling rabbits out of hats on demand. He is the lead contributor to Curated SQL, president of the Triangle Area SQL Server Users Group, and author of the books PolyBase Revealed (Apress, 2020) and Finding Ghosts in Your Data: Anomaly Detection Techniques with Examples in Python (Apress, 2022). A resident of Durham, North Carolina, he can be found cycling the trails along the triangle whenever the weather's nice enough.
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