2023 was a wild year for me, and 2024 is shaping up to make this year look downright mundane. Thanks a ton for your support in 2023! I’m humbled, and it really means a lot.
In the meantime, please subscribe to Practical Data Modeling. This is where I’ll be launching early content related to my new data modeling book, tutorial content (articles, videos, etc), and an awesome community of data modelers. Look out for the first articles, dropping next week.
Lots of other announcements coming, so stay tuned.
Hope you had a great holiday, and here’s to an awesome 2024!
Thanks,
Joe Reis
P.S. Would you like me to speak at your event? Submit a speaking request here.
Happy 2024!!!
I’ll keep this short since I’m sure everyone is gearing up for New Year’s.
People often ask me for my predictions and resolutions for next year. Here are a couple of things about how I approach the upcoming year.
First, it’s the season for predictions. It seems like every company and pundit has something to say about next year. Same as it ever was. Predictions are fun to read. They’re also just trivia. Most predictions I see are linear and incremental extrapolations of the present into the future. That works until it doesn’t. For example, in January 2022, it would be easy to assume the Modern Data Stack and Data Mesh would still reign supreme in 2023. Then in November 2022, ChatGPT ushered in the “year of AI” in 2023, where every modern data stack vendor is suddenly an AI company, and Data Mesh isn’t in the spotlight anymore (I joke with Zhamak this is probably the best thing for her, so she can focus her startup). Of course, in early 2022, who could’ve predicted that putting a search bar on top of GPT-3 would create a boom in AI? My grand prediction - I’m sure 2024 will have some interesting events too… Mind blowing, I know.
Unexpected events trump linear incrementalism. By definition, you can’t predict these unexpected events. Things come out of left field that change the game. So, I avoid providing predictions. I like surprises because they’re a big part of the joy and excitement of living in this universe.
Second, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. While resolutions certainly work for some people, I’m pretty boring. I find it easier to just plug away at daily habits over many years - daily reading, exercising, focusing, and eating decently. This means I read 1-3 books per week, write a ton, work out 6 days a week, spend quality time with my family, and have a lot of “focus time.” Sure, I have goals. But goals can appear at any time throughout the year; they’re not exclusive to the start of each year. I find that if I can improve the foundation of my mind and health and bring my best self to each day, it’s much easier to execute goals, no matter when they pop up or what they are.
Again, this is what works for me. Do what works for you. Happy 2024!!!
Listen to the audio clip above on this topic, which is also my 5-Minute Friday on Spotify.
Cool Weekend Reads
Here are some cool things I read this week. Enjoy!
Tech, AI & Data
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me (Sam Altman)
Succinct and valuable points from a CEO who’s done the job more than once ;)
The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work (NYTimes)
Shots fired. As an author and content creator, I’m very curious where this goes.
Seduced By The Machine (The Ruffian)
“Increasingly we also have our goals defined for us by technology and by modern bureaucratic systems (governments, schools, corporations). But instead of providing us with something equally rich and well-fitted, they can only offer us pre-fabricated values, standardised for populations.”
Do you feel like you’re defining yourself by your “readiness score”, “steps”, and other metrics? I get like this, and I hate it. Very good read if this is happening to you.
Fears grow over AI’s impact on the 2024 election (The Hill)
I think AI will reach peak regulatory fever after the crazy AI-infused hall-of-mirrors of the 2024 election. But it will continue regardless. When did we stop phishing, computer viruses, spam, etc? This has only begun.
In the long term, I think the privileged will leave the Internet as their default way of interacting with the world. And that’s my 2029 prediction ;) (see my 5-Minute Friday)
Business & Startups
Getting Off the VC Train (Venture Reflections)
“For these founders, “getting off the train” means decoupling the company’s success from the need to raise future rounds of venture capital and no longer measuring their success by the ability to continue to fundraise to fuel growth.”
To be clear, VC is a great route to take if you have a reason to do so. Know your why, just like any other path. It seems like a lot of recent VC-funded founders didn’t know what they were getting into, perhaps thinking the good times would last. Hard to say. Welcome to inflection points 101.
Personally, I will take VC funding if it 1) provides a catalyst for growth beyond what I can do on my own or 2) I have some crazy moonshot idea that requires an insane amount of external cash to make it happen. Otherwise, I’m pretty old school. Just make money from ongoing operations. I know, weird…
The Podcast World’s Year From Hell (Vulture)
Podcasting had its dot com moment in 2023. Read various opinions on what happened and where the podcasting world goes from here.
4-year campaign backdoored iPhones using possibly the most advanced exploit
ever (Ars Technica)
This is an insane read about an incredibly sophisticated attack on iPhones, where even top security researchers were unwittingly hacked.
New Content, Events, and Upcoming Stuff
Monday Morning Data Chat
Coming up…
We’re done for the year, and no show on Monday, 1/1/2024, cuz New Years Day. See you on 1/8/2024!
In case you missed it…
Mike Ferguson - Top Key Trends in Data Management and Analytics (Spotify, YouTube)
Tristan Handy - Data Engineering Ecosystems, Moats, Semantic Layers (Spotify, YouTube)
Sol Rashidi - Getting Business Value From Data, the CXO Playbook (Spotify, YouTube)
Sarah Nagy - Automating Analytics w/ Generative AI (Spotify, YouTube)
The Joe Reis Show
Coming up…
Sol Rashidi, Steve Nouri, Jordan Morrow, and more…
This week…
5 Minute Friday - My Thoughts on 2024 Predictions and Resolutions (Spotify)
Will Gaviria Rojas - Using AI to Bring Structure to Unstructured Data (Spotify)
In case you missed it…
5 Minute Friday - The Internet of Bullsh*t (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - AI Underpants Gnomes, C-Suite Edition (Spotify)
Eleanor Thompson - Partnerships Deep Dive (Spotify)
Ben Rogojan - Ben Rogojan, aka Seattle Data Guy - Origin Stories, Content Creation, and More (Spotify)
Bill Inmon - History Lessons of the Data Industry. This is a real treat and a very rare conversation with the godfather himself (Spotify) - PINNED HERE.
Events
CES (Las Vegas), 1/8-1/9
Data Day Texas (Austin), 1/27 - Register here
Chill Data Summit (NYC) - Tuesday 2/6 - Register here
Data Modeling Zone (Arizona), 2/28 - Register here
Skiers in Data (Switzerland), March 1-3 - Register here
Deepfest (Saudi Arabia) - March 4-7, TBA
GenAI Conference (London) - May, TBA
On the Beach (Malaga, Spain) - May, TBA
Berlin, Germany - May, TBA
Morocco - May, TBA
Vancouver, BC - June, TBA
South Africa - TBA
Dubai - TBA
Australia - TBA
Asia - TBA
Would you like me to speak at your event? Submit a speaking request here.
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You can also find me here:
Monday Morning Data Chat (YouTube / Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts). Matt Housely and I interview the top people in the field. Live and unscripted. Zero shilling tolerated.
The Joe Reis Show (Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts). My other show. I interview guests, and it’s unscripted with no shilling.
Fundamentals of Data Engineering (Amazon, O’Reilly, and wherever you get your books)
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Thanks! - Joe Reis
I like how the guys on Hard Fork labeled their 2024 predictions into low/medium/high confidence https://open.spotify.com/episode/6UfUhyZ8dOU2QOPQfODPe0?si=-xFCRjg6Tm607nHVTYe1yw