First, I’d like to say thanks.

First to Adam Machanic (b|t) for starting #tsql2sday, second to Steve Jones (b|t) for co-ordinating it, but most importantly to all the people who contributed, listed below.

I asked people to write about something in their IT careers that they had changed your mind about.

What was your original opinion? Why did you believe that? What do you believe now? Why did you change your mind?

Read my full post here.

28 people contributed – which is well above recent averages. My goal was to stimulate genuine reflection, and a number of people have commented that they had to sleep on it before deciding how to approach the topic. Each peice is written with a sincere sense of reflection and honesty. They are all valuable.

I welcomed a broad range of topics, so hopefully there is something for everyone:

Brain-melting technical posts about the inner workings of the SQL engine or effective machine learning architectures in Azure are great. SQL 101 posts or perspectives on age old debates such as tabs and spaces or where to put your commas are great too. Human posts about effective teamwork or diversity or wellbeing in tech are also great.

And within the 28 responses, we’ve got examples of each.

For those who fancy something to melt your brains, check out Jon’s post about SELECT statements in transactions or Glenn’s post about AMD vs Intel.

For those who fancy a good old flame war, check out Nate and Aaron’s contradicting posts about tabs and spaces. (I love the fact that one even references the other!) We’ve also had Kenneth on third party tools, Dan on open source and Brendan on production VMs. Tom talked about Oracle and Andy talked about Microsoft.

We’ve got a bunch of posts about newer technologies too. Kevin and Gareth both talked about PowerShell. Steve talked about containers. Kamil talked about why he has chosen to focus on Azure SQL DW, Data Bricks and Azure Data Factory.

Several people chose to talk about how companies worked together. Chris talked about understanding your business units as well as your code. Taiob talked about making changes from the bottom-up vs top-down. Bert talked about effective communications skills – and he also created this video! I talked about successfully rolling out Continuous Database Deployment to production.

And then we’ve got the human posts. Oh boy was there a lot of sharing this week. Thank you – every one.

Various people, including Mala, Rob F, and Jeff decided to talk about their new perspectives on career progression. Drew talked about how he recognised the gaps in his knowledge. Rob L and Jon both decided to talk about employment vs freelancing/contracting. Reiste and Todd both talked about certifications. Jess talked about her journey to becoming an (awesome) speaker.

I don’t wish to rank the contributions in any way. All of them were valuable. However, I’d like to acknowedge the reflection and honesty that must have gone into the next three. These can’t have been easy to write:

Matt told us about his mental health.

James told us, sincerely, about terrible mistakes he made as a manager.

Eugene told us what convinced him that diversity was important.

 

I think Eugene’s post literally carried this #tsql2sday to new heights. So pleased to see how many RTs and responses it got.

— Mala Mahadevan (@sqlmal) October 8, 2019

Thank you to everyone who contibuted. It was an honour to read each and every post.

 

This month’s posts:

Daniel Alexander: Changing your mind #tsql2sday
In which Dan explains how he learned to stop fearing and embrace open source.

Taiob Ali: Successful Change – Top-down or Bottom-up?
In which Taiob discusses his views on the best way to get changes rolled out within your organisation.

Glenn Berry: T-SQL Tuesday #119 Changing Your Mind
In which Glenn reviews advice he has previously given regarding AMD and Intel processors for SQL Server.

Aaron Bertrand: T-SQL Tuesday #119 – Changing My Mind
In which Aaron revisits that ago old flame war: Tabs vs Spaces. He’s switched sides. I reccommend you also read Nate’s post.

Reitse Eskens: T-SQL Tuesday #119 -Changing your mind
In which Reitse discusses many topics, including knowledge hoarding, weird DBAs, installing SQL Server, certifications and speaking.

Rob Farley: T-SQL Tuesday 119 – Changing your mind
In which Rob describes some of the things he has learned during his career and the new perspectives they gave him which resulted in him focussing on data.

Kenneth Fisher: Using 3rd party tools. T-SQL Tuesday #119
In which Kenneth explains why he has changed his mind about using 3rd party tools instead of the native options.

Matt Gordon: T-SQL Tuesday #119: I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends
In which Matt opens up about personal development, mental health, accepting support and embracing the Microsoft Data Platform community. Thanks for sharing Matt.

Kevin Hill: TSQL Tuesday: Changing your mind
In which Kevin links back to an earlier post where he discusses why he changed his mind about PowerShell. (Also, check out Gareth’s post!)

Tom Hillson: Recovering Oracle Developer
In which Tom tackles the age old SQL Server or Oracle debate. Can you guess which has he decided is the better product? And why?

Jeff Iannucci: T-SQL #119 – Changing My Mind
In which Jeff describes how joining a larger team and being introduced to the SQL community totally changed his view of his job.

Nate Johnson: T-SQL Tuesday #119: Change of Mind
In which Nate revisits that ago old flame war: Tabs vs Spaces. He’s switched sides. I reccommend you also read Aaron’s post.

Steve Jones: T-SQL Tuesday #119-Changing My Mind
In which Steve discusses how he has become less strong-minded as he has become more experienced – and why he recently changed his mind about containers.

Todd Kleinhans: Certifications are Dead- Long Live Certifications
In which Todd… well… you can probably figure it out from the title!

Andy Levy: T-SQL Tuesday #119 – Changing Your Mind
In which Andy takes on Microsoft.

Rob Litjens: @TSQL Tuesday 119 – Mind changers
In which Rob describes turning changes at work into opportunities and embracing freelancing.

Mala Mahadevan: T-SQL Tuesday: Changing my mind
In which Mala first examines the evil-ness of ORMs and then challenges conventional thinking about career progression and success.

Brendan Mason: Production VMs (T-SQL Tuesday – Changing your mind)
In which Brendan not only discusses how he changed his mind about production VMs – but also how he changed other peoples’ minds as well.

Eugene Meidinger: What convinced me that diversity was important
In which Eugene talks very honestly and openly about how his views about diversity have changed based on the experiences he has had.

Gareth_N: T-SQL Tuesday #119 – Changing your mind
In which Gareth (who should let me know his surname if he would like proper attribution!)  discusses his relationship with PowerShell. (Also, check out Kevin’s post!)

Kamil Nowinski: T-SQL Tuesday #119 – What changes my mind
In which Kamil explains how he realised he was spreading himself to thinly and why he decided to focus on learning a few key technologies.

James Philips: Employees don’t work for you; you work for them
In which James discusses the mistakes he’s made and the lessons he’s learned while managing people.

Jess Pomfret: T-SQL Tuesday #119 – Changing your mind
In which Jess discusses how she laughed when Allen White first suggested that she should start speaking. (Look at her now!)

Jon Shaulis: T-SQL Tuesday #119 Changing my mind
In which Jon weighs up the pros/cons of contracting vs employment, before discussing the use of SELECT statements within your transactions.

Drew Skwiers-Koballa: T-SQL Tuesday #119: Changing Your Mind
In which Drew explains how he discovered there were gaps in his knowledge and that sometimes it’s it’s a wonderful thing to be open about that, and to embrace the advice of others.

Bert Wagner: Communicating Effectively at the Workplace
In which Bert discusses the importance of effective communication for software developers and offers 3 great tips for success. (Also, check out the video!)

Alex Yates: Continuous Database Deployment… to Production. #tsql2sday #119
In which Alex describes the first time he saw a company successfully implementing continuous database deployment – and how they challenged his expectations.

Chris Yates: T-SQL Tuesday #119 – Changing Your Mind
In which Chris discusses the importance of not just of understanding your technical solutions, but also understanding how the different business units work together.