October 7, 2023 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Confidence
October 7, 2023 at 10:42 am
Often, and ironically, this is a false impression of oneself. Do you know how much confidence you showed in posting this? Reevaluate man.
October 7, 2023 at 2:17 pm
Great post as always Louis.
October 7, 2023 at 2:35 pm
And I've known some overly confident to the damage to themselves and others.
I recall one job interview years ago in which I was asked if I knew Fortran. My honest response was "No, but I will by the time I come to work for you.". I got a Fortran compiler and a couple books, and was in good shape by the time I got the job offer.
In another situation, I told the manager I would accept the job offer only if I could be put in the retirement plan without the usual delay, and would need three weeks vacation after the first year. The day I started the job I had three weeks vacation credit on my record already.
But it didn't always work out as well. In another case I told a VP that my manager needed to take a shower more often. Very soon I was ushered out the door.
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Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
October 8, 2023 at 2:06 pm
Confidence is a complicated character trait, both for the person exhibiting confidence and those witnessing the confident person. I admire someone who exhibits confidence when confronted with a tricky situation, and their solution is correct. It's inspiring. On the other hand I'm appalled when someone confidently claims their solution is the right one, but then gets proven wrong. I've been that person; it's embarrassing to be proven wrong.
However, when I've thought of a solution and am highly confident that I'm right, but not 100% confident that I'm right, I'm hesitant to mention my solution. Sometimes others will produce the same solution later, and it works, it's great but time has been wasted while I wait to see others produce the answer, I had days before.
A confident person often convinces others that they're right, by sheer force of will. I've seen colleagues, who are always confident of their ideas, easily convincing the boss that their approach is the right one. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
I've always felt like, if you're going to be confident about a solution you propose, you should be 100% correct all the time. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Perhaps it's better to be correct more than 50% of the time.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
October 8, 2023 at 4:43 pm
"A confident person often convinces others that they're right, by sheer force of will."
Rod, I think this is critical. We have to be confident, but also open to listening and considering alterntives. This reminds me of the old thing "My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts". Othersise you open yourself to the "I told you so." thing. When you use 'force of will', you need to be able to withstand the consequences. Maybe it's good to not be alone in a sinking boat.
I do remember some instances when our DBA group did in fact have to base some actions on our confidence and take some 'unauthorized' actions. Don't recall that we ever had problems, but we did have each other's support just in case.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
October 9, 2023 at 9:36 pm
"A confident person often convinces others that they're right, by sheer force of will."
Ooooo maaannnn... you hit a real "hot spot" there for me.
One of my favorite examples is that just because a million people are all doing the same thing, it's not necessarily being done the right way but people continue to post the same incorrect stuff. And then there's the "band wagon" folks that hear or see someone "famous" or with a supposed "expert" reputation saying something and then they repeat the same sometimes absolute worst way possible to do something that someone else posted. 2 of my last 3 articles have been based on proving such "experts" and "band wagon" riders wrong.
And then there's supposed "Best Practices", especially the ones around Random GUIDs and Index Maintenance, both separately and together.
If you really want to have some fun, going looking for all the BBFAATT (a "Modenism" for "Books, Blogs, Forums, Articles, AI, 'Tubes, and Talks", is pronounced as "bee-bee-fat", and the "fat" part can be bleated like a goat when sarcasm is intended) about index maintenance based on logical fragmentation. They all claim that logical fragmentation is an issue that CAN "seriously impact performance" and how important it is because of that.
Then try to find one where they actually demonstrate that "performance has seriously been impacted".
Same thing for Random GUIDs. I have one helluva demonstration that Random GUIDs are actually the epitome of how people think an index should work and that , perhaps not so ironically, it's the use of supposed "Best Practice" Index Maintenance that makes Random GUIDs look so bad fragmentation wise because it (the "Best Practice" Index Maintenance" actually CAUSEs and Perpetuates pages splits.... and not just in Random GUID indexes.
Heh... and then you have people that are using REORGANIZE because it's done "on-line" and supposed "uses a lot less resources than Rebuild). A lot of those same also wonder why there log files are so incredibly large.
They're all riding the same "broken band wagon" on the way to the "too cool for school" cliff.
Heh.. sorry... all of that came out loud, didn't it? 😀
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
October 10, 2023 at 4:38 pm
I was thinking about this generally over the weekend. Confidence is great ... over-confidence is not. If you're so confident that you don't test something or you don't listen to options, you're heading for a fall. Like me, drilling holes in the wrong spot. But I won't get into that.
Trying to figure out the world of SQL as marketing consultant for SQL Solutions Group https://sqlsolutionsgroup.com/
October 10, 2023 at 9:06 pm
I was thinking about this generally over the weekend. Confidence is great ... over-confidence is not. If you're so confident that you don't test something or you don't listen to options, you're heading for a fall. Like me, drilling holes in the wrong spot. But I won't get into that.
If at first you don't succeed...better hope you have a backup. Measure twice, drill once.
Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )
October 22, 2023 at 9:27 pm
I feel that your most needed confidence is that needed for you to ask questions when you are not sure about something.
One of my biggest regrets is in not having the confidence to challenge something that I didn't feel was right because everyone else seemed so confident of the solution. Whether you are wrong or right you owe it to your future self to check.
If you are wrong you learn something. If you are right then, hopefully, it has a benefit to the group.
There is definitely a skill in asking questions in a way that makes people think carefully about the answer. Sometimes you have a gut feel that is hard to articulate or provide a tight enough focus for your audience to see your point. Unless it is something that requires an urgent decision I feel it is acceptable to ask for some time to check some scenarios and report back to the group or someone whose technical capabilities are respected by the group.
The times when I have challenged something I have trusted the person who received the challenge. That is another aspect I think is important for gaining confidence. Trust.
October 23, 2023 at 3:44 am
I feel that your most needed confidence is that needed for you to ask questions when you are not sure about something.
One of my biggest regrets is in not having the confidence to challenge something that I didn't feel was right because everyone else seemed so confident of the solution. Whether you are wrong or right you owe it to your future self to check.
If you are wrong you learn something. If you are right then, hopefully, it has a benefit to the group.
There is definitely a skill in asking questions in a way that makes people think carefully about the answer. Sometimes you have a gut feel that is hard to articulate or provide a tight enough focus for your audience to see your point. Unless it is something that requires an urgent decision I feel it is acceptable to ask for some time to check some scenarios and report back to the group or someone whose technical capabilities are respected by the group.
The times when I have challenged something I have trusted the person who received the challenge. That is another aspect I think is important for gaining confidence. Trust.
I wish I could give this the thousands of LIKEs it deserves. To wit, I ask questions even when I'm sure about something because there's always a faster gun somewhere and I'm more interested in learning how to shoot than being shot. 😀
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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