Participate in the Idera SQL doctor BETA program and enter to win an iPad!
NEW SQL doctor analyzes SQL Server performance and provides instant recommendations to help you cure performance problems.
Whether you are a novice or expert on SQL Server, SQL doctor will help you help you find and fix performance problems faster than ever.
Try the BETA now!
Another Definition of a SQL Expert
I was going to put this topic to bed. Then I received an Email from Tom; you have to read it. Tom gives us the true definition of an expert…"someone who can figure it out and get it done."
I promise to move on to other topics next week. Feel free to drop me a note for topics that interest you as well. Send your comments to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
It’s funny you should mention that…
I’ve found myself accused of being an “expert” too – which just wigs me out no end. I don’t think of myself as an expert, but other people do.
And that’s where it gets weird. People ask me questions – and I remember one fellow in particular at one job came up to me and asked me this question that I absolutely, positively, honestly, had no idea how to solve. But he didn’t know that.
I swung around in my chair, whipped up Books on line, and muttered something about “let me see if I can get the syntax for this right…” while I found out how to do what it was he wanted to have done.
I flipped him [grief] about what it was he’d done that he needed me to fix the whole time – it’s what I do with folks, it’s disarming. The whole thing took no more than 5 minutes, start to finish. Then I swung back around and looked at him “sternly” and told him, “Now go away or I shall have to taunt you a second time…” (a la Monty Python) I turned around and went back to work. I noticed a shadow – and realized that he’d stepped outside my cubicle and hadn’t moved.
Now one of the things I’ve always done with folks is just – as I said, flip them [grief] about anything. They tend to put the DBA’s on such a pedestal, with the whole ‘bowing’ thing and the ‘I’m not worthy’ thing (also a la Monty Python). Drives me just this side of nuts – but I have fun with it… I rarely if ever get angry at folks, because I am fully capable of doing something stupid – I’m human, it comes with the territory. Having the SA password or being in an admin group only allows me to apply this stupidity to more machines, far more efficiently, at any given time than they can – so I’m very careful. But because of this, I just accept that things happen, help them fix it when they muff things up, and then teach them how not to do it again. However, whenever someone does something exquisitely stupid, I tend call them a [name]. I didn’t realize it – but it turns out that it became a coveted thing… If I called them a [name], then all was right in the world. If I didn’t, they thought I was mad at them, and they literally cowered when they came to me the next time. It was so weird… So this time – I just went back to work and forgot about it until I noticed that shadow and the fellow standing outside my cubicle, clearly nervous that he’d done something very, very bad.
I looked at him… “What?”
“You didn’t call me a [name]…”
“Oh… right… ‘[name]!’”
And he walked away, totally content. His knowledge reinforced that Tom Knew Everything, and that Tom wasn’t mad at him.
And somehow, some way – he thought I was an expert…
Sigh…
Take care,
Tom
Featured White Paper(s)
Why and How You Should Find and Fix Index Fragmentation
In a high-volume database you need frequent critical maintenance. If you skip this important task, index fragmentation may ca… (read more)
Featured Article(s)
New Features in Silverlight 4 – Part 2
In the first part in this series of articles on the new features in Silverlight 4, we discussed what Silverlight 4 is all about, why it is useful. We also discussed, Printing Support, WCF RIA Services Support, Support for Integration with SharePoint 2010 applications, Support for Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) and Networking Enhancements in Silverlight 4. In this concluding part of this series, we will take a look at some other exciting new features in Silverlight 4.