SQL: One of the most valuable skills – Craig Kerstiens

I admit it. I suffered from an “algebra narcoleptic syndrome” during my relational database lessons at University (1996 circa).

Ok it is a fake. But it seems so real on these days.

Boring male sleeping student

I was unable to avoid sleeping. I learned to love SQL after some years and now I think SQL is the most powerful, direct and useful stuff you can learn.

SQL is the faster way to write a specification to send to a remote team: it is very compact, very precise and you cannot “get it wrong” easily. If you need to write a tech spech, with a bunch of table a not-so-senior guy can understand how to implement a simple CRUD with little/no explanation by your side.

SQL is declarative, and the same data model can be accessed from more then one application. You can migrate a system keeping the same database, for instance.

SQL is 50 years old, and was a very high priced product in 1980. Now SQLite offers powerful construct like UPSERT, windowing functions and indexes as embedded database. So even your small embedded Phone can enjoy relations!

SQL Boring effect on my daughter

So it was a joy to find someone else thinking the same:

Regardless of what role you are in SQL will find a way to make your life easier. Today as a product manager it’s key for me to look at data, analyze how effective we’re being on the product front, and shape the product roadmap. If we just shipped a new feature, the data on whether someone has viewed that feature is likely somewhere sitting in a relational database.

Source: SQL: One of the most valuable skills – Craig Kerstiens
SQL is 50 years old, and was a very high priced product in 1980. Now SQLite offers powerful construct like UPSERT, windowing functions and indexes as embedded database. So even your small embedded Phone can enjoy relations!

So it was a joy to find someone else thinking the same:

Regardless of what role you are in SQL will find a way to make your life easier. Today as a product manager it’s key for me to look at data, analyze how effective we’re being on the product front, and shape the product roadmap. If we just shipped a new feature, the data on whether someone has viewed that feature is likely somewhere sitting in a relational database.

Source: SQL: One of the most valuable skills – Craig Kerstiens