Those in technical industries are easily overwhelmed with the plethora of opportunities to learn and use new technologies. I frequently hear people ask how to go about deciding what to learn next. It’s a question I struggled with for a long time too. Combine this with a passion and excitement for learning and you’ll find someone who is constantly juggling…
Category: The Boutique Edge
Help yourself
Take a look at the things you do day in and day out to help others improve the work they do. What skills are involved? What are the typical outcomes you help people achieve? List three things you would like to improve about the work you do, that would have a measurable impact: Are any of these improvements similar to…
Thoughts on personal development databases
A follow up to Thoughts on shared development databases. An overview of how personal databases work
Thoughts on shared development databases
Trying a new format for sharing ideas, my thoughts, verbalized, enjoy. A fun little depiction:
There’s plenty of time in 40 hours to invest in learning on the job
The idea that individuals should invest their own time in learning, and should be expected to work 40+ hours a week is too prevalent. And so are the results, or lack thereof: Employees are mentally sapped from long work weeks, learning isn’t productive. Learning is inconsistent. Individuals with a passion for learning will learn. Others that don’t have a passion…
Database “code” distinction
When considering how to improve dealing with changes to your database when releasing software, one simple distinction can help clear up a lot of confusion. There are two broad categories of things that change in a database. There are tables that contain data for your application. Unlike application code, these can’t be dropped and recreated each time you release. At…
What database schema comparisons can accomplish
When you wait until the last minute to deal with database changes, schema comparison is one of the tools necessary to reverse engineer what changed in your database. A schema comparison helps identify what changed about the structure of the database. For example, a table was added or a column was removed. Schema comparison doesn’t focus on what may or…
The consequences of waiting until the last minute to deal with the database
One common technique for managing database changes when releasing software is to establish a development database in addition to a production database. The development database is often a copy of production from some point in the past and serves as a point of experimentation for changes. Whether there’s one developer or many, this database becomes the record of truth for…
Learning inadequacy
A slavish sense of inadequacy is the number one failure with the way most people approach learning. Let’s get one thing out of the way, you can’t know everything. You can’t even begin to know everything within your industry. You can’t even begin to know everything within your expertise. You could spend all your life reading written knowledge alone, and…