Kung fu and the art of SQL Server

A few nights ago, I watched The Forbidden Kingdom with my kids; I’ve seen it before, but this time there was a message in it that I needed to hear.  Obviously, I’ve been in a slump lately, and even though I’m continuing to be involved in what I do as a SQL Server professional, I haven’t been excited about it in a long time.  I’ve been at my current position for almost 8 years, and frankly, I’ve gotten bored.  Mix that with a lot of post-divorce depression, anxiety about the future, and all of a sudden my yin and my yang are not in harmony.

DISCLAIMER: I should point out that my feelings of boredom are NOT an indicator of any dissatisfaction with my current employment; rather, it’s a personal feeling that I’m not pushing myself as hard as I used to.   I’m not planning on making a move or any other sudden change of life; I just feel out-of-balance, and need something to center myself again.

I should stop this post here and point out something; I am a student of Western civilization, and I grew up in the Bible Belt.  The little understanding of Eastern philosophy that I have comes from many wasted hours of watching bad martial arts movies (including the Karate Kid I, II, and III); for the most part, Eastern meditation is still considered to be relatively taboo in the deep south.

Anyway, back to our previously scheduled post.  If you’re not familiar with the movie, The Forbidden Kingdom is a fun martial arts action movie with lots of comedic interludes; it’s loosely based on the story of the Monkey King, and the need to return his staff to him to defeat the Jade Emperor.   The staff bearer is an unlikely choice, and he encounters two martial arts teachers along the way, who train him in the art of kung fu.  This teaching is where the film becomes relevant to me at this point in my life.

The path to kung fu is different for everyone.

In the film, the staff bearer is thrust into a strange world of mystery and chaos; it’s a violent world, and he often doesn’t know whom to trust.  However, he meets two teachers who begin instructing him on his journey.  Their fighting styles are very different;  the drunken fighting style of Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) is often in conflict with grace and agility of the Silent Monk (Jet Li).  However, both are kung fu. 

In a similar fashion, those of us who work with SQL Server have all come from different backgrounds; some of us have backgrounds in analytics, some in application development, and some in system administration.  Yet, we are here today.  The important thing to remember is that this is but a space in time, a point in the journey; in order to survive in our occupations, we must continue along the path.

Kung fu requires a desire to learn.

While this seems self-evident, it is often the hardest lesson to learn.  Kung fu is not just about being willing to learn a few new tricks, it’s also about being willing to put aside preconceptions.  Too often we think we focus on what we believe is the right thing to do to maintain our current place in life, only to later find out that we wasted a valuable opportunity to learn something new.  From the film (thanks IMDB!):

Jason Tripitikas: You think you’ll teach me the No Shadow Kick? Oh, and the Buddha Palm Technique. There’s a guy in Virtual Fighter 2, who does the Buddha Palm Technique.
[Lu gives him a cup]
Jason Tripitikas: Thanks, Lu. And he does the Iron Elbow. And he does the One Finger Death Touch.
[the cup starts overflowing]
Jason Tripitikas: The cup’s full. Stop! It’s full!
Lu Yan: Exactly, how can you fill your cup if already full? How can you learn Kung Fu, you already know so much. No Shadow Kick, Buddha Palm! Empty your cup.
[Jason empties his cup]
Lu Yan: [looks at him in surprise] Hopeless. It is hopeless!

Obviously, the lesson is there; the student has preconceived notions about what he should be learning to be a master, rather than simply watching,observing, and learning from what the path presents.  In my own path to be a SQL Server developer, I’ve neglected my administration skills.  I’ve walked away from learning SSIS because my job required me to build a custom ETL process.  I’ve filled my cup with what I think are important things, and neglected to pay attention to the path.  If I were to apply for a development position today, it would be a challenge to convince a future employer of my worth.

Kung fu requires discipline.

Any one who’s ever seen a martial arts movie recognizes the essential truth of this.   To be good at what you do, you must be disciplined in your study.  However, what is important to kung fu is recognizing that discipline is required not only in the maintenance of skills, but also in the ability to sense where the path leads.  As a database professional, you must be willing to invest time in perfecting those things you know (T-SQL? database design?), but also spend extra time learning something new (pick up SSIS or SSAS; how about Reporting Services or Visual Basic?).  True kung fu knows the balance, however; it is often best to be a master of a single skill than a novice in all of them.

Jason Tripitikas: What do we do now?
Lu Yan: How good is your Gung-fu?
Jason Tripitikas: [puzzled look]
Lu Yan: He who speaks, does not Know; He who Knows, does not speak. Surely you’re masterful.

Kung fu masters are obligated to teach any student that seeks, no matter how unlikely the choice.

This is the part I have been struggling with lately; I have neglected teaching, and that is critical to learning.  If you want to learn something new, volunteer to teach about it.  I recently taught a seminar on XML in SQL Server because I wanted to learn more about it; granted, I didn’t push myself hard enough so I didn’t learn as much as I should have, but at least I took another step along the path.

But kung fu is not just about teaching to the willing student, it’s teaching to those who are different than us.

The Silent Monk: But, he’s not even Chinese.

Too often we database professionals assume that the only people that are interested in what we do are other database professionals.  We often fail to volunteer our services to developers, because we assume that they aren’t interested in database performance; instead we grumble about how poorly applications perform.  We don’t share our concerns about how I/O’s affect the database, and instead struggle on with the allotment that our system administrators hand out on the SAN.  We should be volunteering to speak at other user groups, to share our passion with even the unlikely students.  For example, my friend Aaron Nelson recently spoke at a Powershell event; Aaron himself would admit that he’s a SQL guy first, Powershell guru second.  Yet he took the opportunity to teach students with whom he shared little background on a subject with which he had some exposure.  That’s kung fu.

Final thoughts.

I think most martial art movies attempt to convey the message that kung fu is about self-discipline, rather than preparation for violence, but make no mistake: kung fu is an effective fighting skill.  A master of kung fu is a warrior, not a ballet dancer.  I’ve recently read a great book, Wild at Heart, which contains the following bit of wisdom:

Man is not born into a sitcom or a soap opera; he is born into a world at war.  This is not Home Improvement; it’s Saving Private Ryan.  There will be many, many battles to fight on many different battlefields.

We are at war with ourselves; the battle to perfect our craft is a battle against sloth, laziness, and a lack of focus.  I am choosing to continue on the path of kung fu in my quest to become a SQL Server master, and I hope you can make the same commitment.  For me, that’s a commitment to finish my SQL Server 2008 certifications before the end of year; that’s a benchmark, not a destination.  I need to learn much along the way.