SQL For Dummies by Allen Taylor (Summer 2013)
I kid you not, dear reader, a proper ‘for dummies’ book changed my life…
I checked out SQL For Dummies as reference material for work because I found myself asking more frequent questions about our programming language. I went with the book format because I wanted a more reliable alternative than Google (this was, like, ages ago - those were the good old days).
I think I ended up keeping it for about three months, a decision that cost me exactly $2.10 in overdue fees. It was money well spent, however. For the price of two sips of Guinness, I got extended time with this book.
One major impact this book had on my life was how it helped me confirm what I now consider a fairly foolproof entry-level work philosophy – always get involved in projects that cultivate skills valued outside the organization. In my first role as a data analyst, the most valuable such skill I could feasibly learn on the job was SQL programming. By checking out this book, I started the process of getting myself out of assignments requiring low-value skills that no one outside my organization would care about (like researching health insurance contracts, which requires and thus cultivates having high attention to detail, being detail oriented, being organized) and into projects where I would be asked to program in SQL (which requires all the same skills listed for ‘researching contracts’, anyway, but applies to any company that uses a database, which is all of them) (1).
The second big change involved my mentality toward learning. Up until this point, I think I was in two minds about my post-college education. At work, my approach to learning was the equivalent of my mentality when I was taking college classes. My knowledge level, in general, rose as I participated in company sponsored training. The promise was ‘learn this and it will work out’ and there was no reason to believe otherwise. Each day, I felt I was gaining valuable experience as I learned from those better versed in the industry, company, or team. But I never really learned anything I could apply to the job. If I waited four years, maybe it would work out. But I'd just waited four years studying irrelevant things like written Japanese, US history, and advanced statistics - who could have waited for four more years while looking at health insurance data?
Outside of work, my approach was the equivalent of my mentality when I was training for basketball. I was less concerned about an abstract concept of ‘my knowledge level’ and instead focused on picking out specific skills or areas for improvement. Just as I used to do specific drills or training to improve in one aspect of basketball, I would find books that best cultivated my ability to handle one aspect of my non-work life. I would think of a question, like 'how does the stove work?' and check out a book like 'How The Stove Works' (not a real book, or at least, not one I’m aware of, but I hope you get the idea). My general knowledge level did not rise very much because of my targeted reading (outside of absorbing what I read, of course). But I was learning valuable skills that I could apply to answer specific questions.
SQL For Dummies signaled a turning point – or maybe a merging point is a better expression. This book was the moment at work when I started doing things with the same process that helped me outside of work. Instead of worrying about collecting answers for abstract future questions by accumulating knowledge, I started to look for skills to develop in order to answer the immediate questions of the work on that day (2).
Footnotes / frankly speaking… / highway analogies
0. For dummies, a history…
This book is definitely a classic ‘For Dummies’ work – the cover has big words on a yellow background and everything. It’s only one of two ‘for dummies’ book I’ve ever studied. The other was Chess For Dummies, a book I remember enjoying despite its complete lack of positive impact on my chess ability.
1. The reality: most people switch jobs eventually…
The toughest part of determining what the highest value skill a job can teach is to simply imagine how a different employer might view the skill. In my former position, I had the opportunity to learn client service skills as well as becoming an expert in Excel analysis. However, the applications of these skills in the company were so specific to the organization’s needs that learning these would not position me as well for a new role as learning how to program a database did.
2. Actually, swerve lane also works…
Interestingly, this change at work was mirrored in my reading. Books that appeared like answers to my targeted questions gave way to books that simply built my knowledge base. As it turns out, collecting wisdom to answer the unknown questions of the future proved more relevant outside of work. Things in life happen with much more ambiguity and much less predictability than things at work.
