Joe's Nerdy Rants #8

"I've Got People Skills!", plus weekend reads and other stuff

Jul 08, 2023

People skills are back! Crazy how the pendulum swings. I didn’t think I’d see the day when people would rally around “soft and people skills,” but here we are. I’m actually stoked.

Back in the good old days of “STEM is everything,” technical skills were all that mattered. If you were personally intolerable to your team? F it. Hey, you can write code, set up data pipelines, and grab a Red Bull Zero and some gluten-free Korean jerky from the fridge. You have the personality of a paper plate, but that’s good enough.

Now, organizations are shrinking at the same time, and the practice of “data” is once again in a growth spurt. Turns out, being able to communicate with stakeholders is valuable. It’s probably everything right now.

Here’s the deal. Your technical chops are table stakes and probably account for a small fraction of your overall success. If you want to level up in your career past most people, it’s time to learn people skills.

Value is what people want, and most people want to move upward and onward. Your ability to communicate, relate, empathize, and help others get to where they want to go will differentiate you from 99.999% of that pack. By default, you level up and get to where you want to go. That’s how it works.

Watch the Bobs do their thing.

Listen to the audio clip above on this topic, which is also my 5 Minute Friday on Spotify.

Cool Weekend Reads

Hope you all had a great week.

Here are some cool things I read this week…

Tech, AI & Data

Threads (Emerge Tools)

The big news this week - Meta’s Threads. This is a fascinating breakdown of the innards (as far as can be known) of the new Threads app.

BTW, add me if you’re on Threads cuz I’m not on Twitter and have no intention of going back.

https://www.threads.net/@joer3is

Building Real-time Machine Learning Foundations at Lyft (Lyft Engineering)

I believe real-time ML will become the norm this decade. It won’t be easy. If you’re interested in the hard work needed to get there, this is a fantastic read.

Companies Look to Pay Tech Vendors Based on Business Outcomes, Not Usage (WSJ)

“Where cost pressure is high, value- and outcome-based pricing is top of mind,”

I’m hearing more and more people complain the cloud is expensive. A big part of me is unsympathetic since I see “expensive” cloud workloads and quickly realize the workload isn’t optimized for the cloud. The number of people I see “working in the cloud” but lacking knowledge of how to work in the cloud properly is pretty appalling. I think quite a bit of the noise right now is a negotiation tactic (how many people were screaming about their high cloud bills during the boom times? Yeah, me neither). On the other hand, given the budget cuts at most companies, expect pay-for-performance to become more normal. In the long run, this might be a good thing and bring accountability to tech vendors.

AI and the automation of work (Ben Evans)

“What does that mean for generative AI in the workplace? Whatever you think will happen, it will take years, not weeks.”

Or it might take weeks. The only thing I’ve seen with the last several years in ML/AI is the things we expected to be decades away were suddenly here. Of course, things do spread slowly through businesses and organizations, as anyone in the data and tech field is well aware.

Introducing Superalignment (OpenAI)

I’ll just leave this here.

“We need scientific and technical breakthroughs to steer and control AI systems much smarter than us. To solve this problem within four years, we’re starting a new team, co-led by Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, and dedicating 20% of the compute we’ve secured to date to this effort. We’re looking for excellent ML researchers and engineers to join us.”

Artist Banned by Midjourney Over Fake ‘Photos’ of Cheating Politicians (PetaPixel)

Creepy AF. I predict that deep fakes will be so common that everyone’s likeness will be in adult videos, fake affairs, and more.

Business & Startups

How to Do Great Work (Paul Graham)

Paul always writes great essays (tomes?). This is no exception. If you want tips on how to do awesome work, set aside some time this weekend and read this practical essay.

Mid-1990s Sega document leak shows how it lost the second console war to Sony (ArsTechnica)

The more I learn about the 1990s video game wars (watch the Tetris Movie if you haven’t done so), the more I’m in awe. This was a cutthroat environment that also produced some awesome consoles and games.

Vice bosses got bonuses while staff wait to get paid (Semafor)

Vice used to be the epitome of cool back in the day. Back in the 2000s, when they were at their pinnacle, I got to know some of the OG Vice crew. Everything you’d expect ;)

Oh, how things changed. The more I read about the disaster at Vice, the more disgusted I’ve become. Cheap money and greed killed a great journalistic and cultural institution.

Speed x AI (NFX)

Startups already have to move fast. AI-enabled startups will move much, much faster than traditional startups. The rush to greater and greater speed (aka the Red Queen Effect) reminds me of this anti-drug ad from the 1990s. Do more…to earn more…to do more…to earn more…

New Content, Events, and Upcoming Stuff

This week

Monday Morning Data Chat - #133 - Intro to Data Contracts w/ Andrew Jones (Spotify, YouTube)

Upcoming

Monday Morning Data Chat - Should Your Business Chase Generative AI? w/ Andreas Welsch (Live on LinkedIn and YouTube)

The Joe Reis Show - Lots coming up!

Here are some cool upcoming in-person events I’ll be at in June and beyond for 2023

Taking July off…🏔️, except for the virtual Portable Conference and a few other things. My calendar is otherwise completely blocked off from July to early August, so let’s chat over email or similar.

Portable Low Key Conference - Wednesday, July 12 (Register here)

Seattle Data Guy - Friday, July 14th (Watch on YouTube)

Joe Reis + dbt roadshow - Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, and more. Details are coming soon.

DataEngByes. I’ll be on the continental tour in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney for a couple of weeks. August 2023 (more info and registration)

Big Data London - I’m keynoting. Big up the London Massive. September 2023.

Europe - September 2023 TBA

Dubai - October 2023

Vegas - ReInvent 2023

More to come…

Thanks! If you mind helping out…

Thanks for supporting my content. If you aren’t a subscriber, please consider subscribing to this Substack.

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 totally unscripted with no shilling.

Fundamentals of Data Engineering (Amazon, O’Reilly, and wherever you get your books)

Be sure to leave a nice review if you like the content.

Thanks! - Joe Reis

Joe Reis