iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This is really cool to read, thanks for linking this. It also gave me the idea to reach out to the authors of these types of engineering blogs, which often have a lot of technical detail but not the human side of things (decisions, trade-offs, scary moments) which is just as interesting!

> unrelated, just want to say that like 4 years ago I would have died at the thought of posting online (I'm not an introvert but I overthink a lot with posting anything). I feel very grateful with all the #dataBS folks helping out with reposts, sharing their stories, and DM-ing me!

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Hahaha this is an awesome story (and pic) but I bet it was tough to get through at the time. Since the statute of limitations has expired...up for a quick chat about it? Would love to dig into the technical details here

There's a very, very strong divide between lift-and-shift and rearchitect first camps. Would you be up for a quick chat on this? I would love to hear your take (+ any gnarly details)

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I followed you back, it might work now! but it looks like I can DM you so I’ll do that shortly ☺️

Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 10/12/2024

If you're interested, it'll be a super chill, conversational interview (max 30 minutes) where I dig into the technical details + lessons learned about tools/culture/planning Get in touch: elliot@datafold.com

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 10/12/2024

Most migration stories never get shared, even though they’re full of valuable lessons: • Unexpected challenges • Tools that saved the day • High-stakes moments where everything could’ve gone wrong This is your chance to tell the story *you wish someone had told you before*

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 10/12/2024

Got a question for #dataBS: Anyone ever survived a data migration with a story to tell—the good, the bad, or the "we’ll laugh about this someday"? I’m writing a technical piece and I’d love to hear your wins, cautionary tales, and hard-earned lessons. Please DM if you're keen!

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 22/11/2024

It’s really smart to turn an interview question into a blog post showcasing your skills. Good luck!

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 22/11/2024

You could try something like: "Misaligned filters in SQL queries can lead to subtle yet critical inconsistencies in results—especially when calculating metrics like productivity over specific timeframes. In this piece, I'll...." Grabs someone's attention immediately with what/why/how

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 22/11/2024

I found this informative. One small suggestion that can have a big impact on readability: the intro needs a strong hook to answer "so what?" and this is currently buried in the middle on misaligned filters causing discrepancies in results, and what your proposed solution is

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The editorial team is super friendly and their submission guidelines are straightforward. The great thing about TDS vs your own blog is that an editor (sometimes > 1) looks over every submission and leaves helpful feedback!

The normies will follow once the power users establish themselves here lol So we should post more about data to accelerate the migration 🤣

I think Threads does have a larger one by default but in a useless way (I have Threads only because it was easy to do as an IG user but it didn’t map to my existing Twitter follows and so I’ve never used it)

that's the thing, it sidesteps it entirely! "but everyone is on BS" should be enough to make the decision (for folks in data anyway) every day that BS gains followers this will become more self-evident

a politically agnostic answer would say something like, any individual decision about which app to use is inconsequential, but once the existing network starts to erode, quality starts dropping exponentially so whichever app picks up critical mass first wins, and you should join that one

Would definitely love to read this!

"The real greatest BI tool helps someone using data to orient it, so that it reflects the control levers they have to enact change." 1000% and I think this is what @cedricchin.bsky.social has been saying with his becoming data-driven series on xmr charts

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tweet / databs old habits die hard

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there isn't a better label to describe what I do so I find myself saying "I'm a technical writer, but..." a lot!

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"Cross-sectional" is a great way to put it. I've been struggling with how to describe what I do as my title really doesn't capture it, especially at a startup where it's common to wear many hats. I'm a technical writer that also does trade shows (sales) and creates repos (analytics engineering-lite)

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I feel more motivated to write it knowing at least one person (who’s not my mom) will read it 😆

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Relevant bit for #dataBS is that for the longest time I thought there were only like four roles to aim for if I wanted to be in data (DS/MLE/DE/AE), and I really really wanted to be in data. One day I'll write about the serendipitous path that led me to technical writing (specializing in DE/DS)!

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Randy's project was my first intro to webrings!

There are a lot of developer tools out there

There has never been a better time to get into software *and* roles that support it e.g. technical writing, product marketing. In fact, developer marketing is an incredibly exciting place to be in right now: www.readamplified.com/there-are-a-...

readamplified.com

Some data on how saturated the world of developer tools has become, and why you need to stand out.

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 18/11/2024

I can bring technical writing good vibes (curated H1s and H2s)!

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 17/11/2024

Please add me! Been meaning to post about how Lego robotics/programming is going this fall

Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 13/11/2024

“pentzels” for pretzels he’s 8 and we still refuse to correct him, that’s its name now!

the philosophers on here will appreciate that I got to sneak in a Ship of Thesus reference:

Is the data even the same?
Your team pulls an all-nighter one quiet Sunday evening to actually run your migration script, and everything miraculously moves from Oracle to Snowflake without any errors and only a few minutes of downtime. But you’re not done yet. You get a message from the machine learning team the next day: “Hey, our models are producing unexpected results. Is the data in Snowflake actually right?”

Data migration experts grapple with a puzzle similar to the Ship of Theseus paradox: How do you know your data remains exactly the same amidst all the transformations?

Trying to answer this question is challenging, and many companies have emerged to address this, and other problems, with solutions.

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Data migration is about transferring information (data) from one place to another.

if there are any Technically fans out there in #dataBS, I have a piece on data migrations in your inbox today: read.technically.dev/p/whats-a-da...

read.technically.dev

What's a data migration?

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🎯 I like how Alex linked data quality to trust. Creating and maintaining trust esp without institutional oversight or precedents continues to be so economically valuable

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 11/11/2024

saving this link for the next person who asks me how on earth my economics history msc relates to working in data

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Introduce yourself with some past jobs - Kumon math - A few random work-study gigs during undergrad - Global health research fellow - Cdn foreign policy journal editor - Backend banking ops - Bank teller - Editor at Towards Data Science - Sales engineer at Plotly - Freelance DS/DE technical writer

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 07/11/2024

Still working through the technical points here but just want to say that this is an exceptionally well written piece

Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 07/11/2024

definitely check out @ssp.sh’s resources! When I was pivoting into DE I found the dbt fundamentals course a helpful starting point, and then did small projects like this one to layer on more concepts like CI, GitHub actions, data tests github.com/elliotgunn/d...

github.com

GitHub - elliotgunn/datafold-dbt-ci-advanced: Add 4 more integrations to your dbt CI pipeline: Slim CI, pre-commit hooks, Data Diffs, and Slack notifications

Add 4 more integrations to your dbt CI pipeline: Slim CI, pre-commit hooks, Data Diffs, and Slack notifications - elliotgunn/datafold-dbt-ci-advanced

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Elliot Gunn @elliotgunn.com · 07/11/2024

🫡 thank you for doing this!