Excellent editorial, Steve! I wish I could give it a hundred stars because it really hits the nail on the head. There're too many people that spend way too much time doing the "Chicken Little" thing.

I'll also point out that there are also too many people that invest way too much time in following the lastest and greatest shiney object. Yes, things like Power Pivot are absolutely the bee knees but, if you don't know how to do a simple CROSS TAB with some pretty good performance behind it, then you're really not doing anyone a favor. You've got to know the basics first.

As I ask a lot of people who skip the basics... "Do you want to be a DBA... or just a user?"