Continuous Learning Adopting a Habit of · May 29, 2019 Derek Downey Director, OSDB Adopting a Habit of Continuous Learning

May 29, 2019

Derek DowneyDirector, OSDB

Adopting a Habit of Continuous Learning

© The Pythian Group Inc., 2018 2© The Pythian Group Inc., 2019 2

PYTHIAN

A global IT company that helps businesses leverage disruptive technologies to better compete.

Our services and software solutions unleash the power of cloud, data and analytics to drive better business outcomes for our clients.

Our 20 years in data, commitment to hiring the best talent, and our deep technical and business expertise allow us to meet our promise of using technology to deliver the best outcomes faster.


> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM clients;+-----------------------------+| COUNT(*) |+-----------------------------+| 350 |+-----------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Pythian Clients

> SELECT industry FROM clients GROUP BY industry;+--------------------------------+| industry |+--------------------------------+| Automotive || E-commerce || Financial Services || Gaming || Government || Healthcare || Media/Information Services || Retail || SaaS |+--------------------------------+9 rows in set (662,256,000.00 sec)


Pythian Team


{"name": "Derek Downey",

"location": "Knoxville, TN, USA",

"email": "[email protected]",

"pythian_history": {

"current_role": {"role": "Director of Customer Service Delivery, OSDB", "start": "2017-10"},

"previous_roles": [

{"role": "Database Consultant", "start": "2013-02", "end": "2013-08"},

{"role": "Lead Database Consultant", "start": "2013-08", "end": "2014-04"},

{"role": "Principal Consultant", "start": "2014-04", "end": "2015-08"},

{"role": "DevOps Consultant", "start": "2015-08", "end": "2016-02"},

{"role": "Practice Advocate", "start": "2016-02", "end": "2017-10"}]

}

"social": [{"network": "LinkedIn", "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekjdowney/ "},

{"network": "Twitter", "url": "https://twitter.com/derek_downey "}],

"interests": ["Parenting", "Husbanding", “Remote Work”, "Hiking", "Camping", "Traveling"]}

About me

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekjdowney/

https://twitter.com/derek_downey


{"name": "Derek Downey",

"location": "Knoxville, TN, USA",

"email": "[email protected]",

"pythian_history": {

"current_role": {"role": "Director of Customer Service Delivery, OSDB", "start": "2017-10"},

"previous_roles": [

{"role": "Database Consultant", "start": "2013-02", "end": "2013-08"},

{"role": "Lead Database Consultant", "start": "2013-08", "end": "2014-04"},

{"role": "Principal Consultant", "start": "2014-04", "end": "2015-08"},

{"role": "DevOps Consultant", "start": "2015-08", "end": "2016-02"},

{"role": "Practice Advocate", "start": "2016-02", "end": "2017-10"}]

}

"social": [{"network": "LinkedIn", "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekjdowney/ "},

{"network": "Twitter", "url": "https://twitter.com/derek_downey "}],

"interests": ["Parenting", "Husbanding", “Remote Work”, "Hiking", "Camping", "Traveling"]}

About me

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekjdowney/

https://twitter.com/derek_downey


Influences

© The Pythian Group Inc., 2018 8

Why continuous learning?

At Pythian: Performance, Security, Availability, Velocity, Leverage


“If you’re not growing learning, you’re dying.”

- technology changes, yet still maintain old technologies- roles changing: DBA vs DBRE. modified quote, not sure who said it


Why habits?

xkcd.com/974

https://xkcd.com/974/


Edward Thorndike - 1898

…


“You don’t need a unanimous vote to win an election; you just need a majority. It doesn’t matter if you cast a few votes for a bad behavior or an unproductive habit. Your goal is simply to win the majority of the time.”

- James Clear, Atomic Habits

Become a Learner, not “I need to learn technology X”



Making Learning a Habit


make it obvious (cue)

make it attractive (craving)

make it easy (response)

make it satisfying (reward)

Habit Loop


Learning at Pythian

On the job learning

Company initiatives

Personal learning budget

Training Framework


Training framework - First Iteration

- It worked, proved the concept of scenarios for hands-on training- VMs were base OS images to avoid downloading new image each time scenario changed. Ansible provisioned each VM based on scenario requirements- real example scenarios: mismatch timezone in primary/replica setup, point-in-time performance analysis, continuent tungsten setup, migrating to Galera- ideal: 15-min practice through scenarios daily (or 1-hour weekly) to practice things you might not experience frequently on your team.- Two main issues: time to deploy scenarios was 20-30min, making it hard to do at beginning of day before distractions. Ansible dependencies on various operating systems caused friction with troubleshooting and upgrades broke things.


make it obvious (cue)

make it attractive (craving)

make it easy (response)

make it satisfying (reward)

Habit Loop


Training framework - Second Iteration

Dependencies installed by Vagrant, versions are pinned.ControlVM doesn’t need to be installed each time. One/done.Docker enabled Low start up time: 2-3 minutes instead of 20-30minutesWhy didn’t we start with Docker? Time of development, Docker wasn’t a clear ‘need-to-know’ technology for data infrastructure, and there is a learning curve working with it.


Twitter: @derek_downeyBlog: https://blog.pythian.com

Pythian is hiring learners and aspiring learners: https://pythian.com/careers

https://blog.pythian.com

https://pythian.com/careers

Continuous Learning Adopting a Habit of · May 29, 2019 Derek Downey Director, OSDB Adopting a Habit of Continuous Learning

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