Start Playing Offense
As I write this, I’m very jet-lagged from my long flight back to the US, from Australia. Just wrapped up a two-week tour with the amazing DataEngBytes conference in Australia. Australia is a massive country, and I couldn’t pick a better crew to be with (you know who you are). Special shoutout to Peter Hanssens, the conference organizer, who puts on one of the best data conferences on the planet, IMO.
Anyway, on to the rant…
There’s an old saying - “No matter where you go, there you are.” We like to think our problems are special. Maybe they are. But they’re more often shared by many people in the same situation. Tech and data are lonely places, so it’s not hard to understand why you might feel your situation is unique. Hear me out.
I’ve interacted with countless data practitioners and teams around the globe for many years. No matter where you go in the data world, the problems are the same. My recent trip to Australia was a reminder. I gave three talks, spoke on four panels, and chatted with hundreds of data professionals about their experiences in the field. Overwhelmingly, data professionals feel misunderstood, underappreciated, and overwhelmed by “the business.” What’s going on?
Too often, data practitioners are far removed from the core parts of the business. Often being on the receiving end, they’re playing defense by default. As I said before sh*t flows downhill, and data teams are famous for their ability to receive sh*t in volumes, often by the truckload.
This has to stop. If “the business” is to take data seriously, it’s time to stop doing what’s been failing us for years, namely being passive bystanders. Get involved with the business on key initiatives where you can move the needle1. Be proactive and integrate your domain expertise into the discussion. Notice that I’m suggesting that you play offense, not defense. This is very intentional. You need to show the business that you’re up to the task of not only addressing its needs but getting ahead of them. If you can show that you care about the business, the business will care about you. Respect gets respect. Start playing offense.
Listen to the audio clip above on this topic, which is also my 5-Minute Friday on Spotify.
Cool Weekend Reads
I hope you all had a great week. I’ve been touring Australia all week and enjoying it!
Here are some cool things I read this week…
Tech, AI & Data
Instacart’s Snowflake Spend
The big news this week is the confusion/hysteria over Instacart’s Snowflake spend. I don’t have a dog in the fight and really don’t care either way, so I’ll just leave a few links for you to read.
Snowflake and Instacart: The Facts (Snowflake)
Snowflake explains that Instacart's bills aren't melting – it's called 'optimization' (The Register)
Instacart, Databricks and Snowflake drama (Reddit)
Earning the privilege to work on unoriginal problems (Landmines)
“So what should you do? As little as possible! Ask your team to be lazy. Find ready-made tools that give you the most of what you think you will need, for the least amount of effort.”
Amen. There’s a ton of undifferentiated heavy lifting on tech teams. The reasons vary, but the results are often the same - waste.
Why we always end up with waterfall (Amazing.co)
“Now comes remote, glad we do waterfall, remote fits waterfall like a glove. Can we invent new processes and methodologies? Yes, we can and yes we will. I believe we urgently need a new process for working remote. The Internet brought agile, what will remote work bring? But if we do not think about the drivers and work on them one after the other, the new process will be waterfall.”
Agile is great. I also hope we move beyond the cargo cult of Agile. Waterfall is a reality, and not always a bad one, tbh.
Business & Startups
As TikTok Ban Looms, ByteDance Battles Oracle For Control Of Its Algorithm (Forbes)
This is a CRAZY story about intellectual property, governments, and spying that will have big implications in the broader economic war between the US and China.
This Company Created a Return-to-Office Plan That Employees Actually Like (WSJ)
Who would’ve thought an old-school jam company might crack the code on return-to-office?
Forget the iPhone: BlackBerry is still the one to beat (Barry Ritholz)
The future is rarely a straight-line extrapolation of the past. In other news, I saw someone typing on a Blackberry in Brisbane, Australia the other day. It’s like a Black Swan sighting, which I hear also happens in Australia.
New Content, Events, and Upcoming Stuff
Monday Morning Data Chat
Coming up…
Monday 9/4 -Helping Devs Monetize Open-Source w/ Max Howell (LinkedIn, YouTube)
In case you missed it…
Data Grifters w/ Aaron Hunsaker (Spotify, YouTube)
The Power of 3 (Math Nerds, Professors, and O'Reilly Authors) w/ Hala Nelson (Spotify, YouTube)
Streaming Data Processing Deep Dive w/ David Yaffe and Johnny Graettinger (co-founders of Estuary) (Spotify, YouTube)
The Rise and Importance of Business Language w/ John O'Gorman (Spotify, YouTube)
The Joe Reis Show
5 Minute Friday - Start Playing Offense (Spotify)
David Foster - Generative Deep Learning, Writing a Best-Selling Book, and More (Spotify)
In case you missed it…
Kevin Hu - How the Data Landscape Evolves Alongside LLM’s (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - If Not Now, When? (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - Data NIMBYism and Gatekeeping w/ Matt Housley (Spotify)
Gordon Wong - Building Trust, Leading and Unblocking Your Data Team (Spotify)
5 Minute Friday - The Dev and Data Divide (Spotify)
Vin Vashishta - From Data to Profit, Writing a Book, and more (Spotify)
Events
September
Joe Reis + dbt roadshow - Bellevue, WA (9/7) - register here
Big Data London- 9/20 - register here
October
Bangalore, India - 10/12. DEWcon - register here
Dubai - 10/16-10/19. GITEX - register here
Chicago - 10/26 - GOTO Conference Data Engineering Masterclass. This is a VERY rare opportunity to learn data engineering from Matt Housley and me, in person - register here
November
Canada - DAMA Toronto. Details TBA
Finland - TBA
Las Vegas - ReInvent - got a massive special announcement in store :)
2024 - lots of stuff. Stay tuned :)
Thanks! If you want to help out…
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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 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
Hopefully, you know what these are. If not, time to start looking for work elsewhere, as you’re so far removed from the core of the business.
Hey Joe, first time reader and new subscriber! I like your writing style - looking forward to reading more! Start playing offense...LOVE IT! I've been...let's just say "less polite" in my discussion with those in the data space who come to me with a plethora of examples, stories, and complaints about how the business: don't understand the data, never give them a proper spec, complain that the report doesn't make sense, don't tell us the full story, never give us enough time, keep asking for direct access to data so they can create their own reports....
It's YOUR job to learn the business side of "the biz".
It's YOUR job to sound like a normal human and engage proactively with your customers so you can suggest ways to help BEFORE they even know to ask!
It's YOUR job to earn your customers trust and respect by showing you can add value and be a partner to the business.
Tired of being an order taker? Then stop waiting for the just in time order. Figure out what all needs to be on the data menu and delight them with the self serve buffet with options they didn't know they needed, to solve the problems they didn't know they had until you finally told them the data story they needed to hear!
Step up and stop pontificating about "those users" and play that US vs THEM game. The IT teams of the 90's are calling...I suggest you don't pick up. Now I am ranting...yawn.
So in other news....re: Chicago 10/26 - link points to the May event already past. Is this an error? I'm travelling out to Chicago around that time and might be interested in that dataengineering master class.... LMK.
Yes, Dev teams need to think of their data interface just as they are concerned about user interface.