I have to agree with Gail on this one.

To put my own slant on what she said, I believe that a lot of excellent DBA's have simply tired of the fight with stupid people (as in people who don't know better but won't listen, either). A DBA has to respect everyone's budgets for both money and time no matter how ridiculous such budgets may seem. I believe that most DBA's worth their salt all have fought and, maybe, still fight for doing things the "right way" such as using stored procedures instead of T-SQL embedded in supposely "managed code".

But constant fighting with people who simply will not listen is a bit like water torture... even the best can only take so much. So they either find a job where people will listen (totally negating the need for tools, such as a book, to fight the bureaucracy) or they simply stop fighting because it doesn't get them anywhere even when such tools are available. They resign themselves to people doing stupid things, clean up the mess (they're usually smart enough to expect "the mess" and have prepared for it) when something goes wrong, and maybe even have the pleasure of occasionally telling someone "I told you so."

As honorable a task it may seem to be, we don't need yet another book for DBA's. The good ones already know what needs to be done and how to do it. What we really need is a book to teach managers that "If you want it real bad, you'll normally get it that way." We need a book of real stories where poor planning, shortcuts, and omissions taken to meet some bloody schedule or budget contrived during a conversation on the golf course or in an elevator have caused major catastrophes or serious "Black Eyes" in the eyes of customers. We need them to understand the differences between front-end code and what databases are really all about. We need to scare the hell out of them with the truth that they apparently can't see now.

To me... a lot of DBA's have become like old folks (a serious compliment, actually). They really know how to get things done but everyone thinks they're hard of hearing and possibly mute. They're really not... they're just tired of listening to stupid things and speaking to deaf ears. 😉