People often ask me for career advice. In a tough job market where people are sending out thousands of resumes and hearing nothing back, I notice a lot of people have weak networks and are unknown to the companies they're applying to. This results in lots of frustration and disappointment for job seekers. Is there a better way? Yes. People need to …

Chris Riccomini and I chat about building his latest project SlateDB, building data intensive infrastructure, writing, investing, and much more.

In this episode, I have a chat with Antti Rask, Juha Korpella, Niko Korvenlaita, Russell Willis, and Kosti Hokkanen. We chat about data, startups, and business in Finland and Europe.

Let's do things the right way, not just the fast way. My works: 📕Fundamentals of Data Engineering: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/fundamentals-of-data/9781098108298/ 🎥 Deeplearning.ai Data Engineering Certificate: https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/data-engineering 🔥Practical Data Modeling: https://practicaldatamodeling.substa…

I speak at a lot of conferences, and I've lost track of how many questions I've answered. Since conferences are top of mind for me right now, here are some tips for asking good (and bad) questions of speakers. My works: 📕Fundamentals of Data Engineering: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/fundamentals-of-data/9781098108298/ 🎥 Deeplearning.ai Data…

Wes McKinney and I chat about Positron, Arrow, how he created Pandas and Arrow, and what makes him tick.

I've seen a TON of horror stories with tech debt and code migrations. It's estimated that 15% to 60% of every dollar in IT spend goes toward tech debt (that's a big range, I know). Regardless, most of this tech debt will not be paid down without a radical change in how we do things. Might AI be the Hail Mary we need to pay down tech debt? I don't s…

Anne-Claire Baschet and Yoann Benoit recently wrote a wonderful article called The Data Death Cycle, which describes the feedback loop of doom that many data teams find themselves in. Here, we discuss the Data Death Cycle in detail. Article: https://medium.com/craftingdataproducts/the-data-death-cycle-6b10ef261d8e…

Larry Burns and I chat about all things data teams—how they fail, their challenges, and how they can add value. To add value, we need to reimagine not only how we think about data but also how we manage knowledge. Larry brings a fresh and battle-worn perspective to the data field, and if you work on or manage a data team, this conversation is worth…

This week I posted about how some major conferences charge a bunch of money for tickets and sponsorship, but don't pay speakers. As a speaker, I find this unethical and exploitative. Here, I unpack my thoughts on speaking at conferences. If you're a speaker, or want to become one, this is worth your time to listen. My post: https://www.linkedin.com…

Vijay Yadav (Director of Data Science at Merck) joins me to chat about a very interesting project he launched at Merck involving LLMs in production. A big part of this discussion is how to make data ready for generative AI. This is a great example of an LLM-native use case in production, which are rare right now. Lots to learn from here. Enjoy! Lin…

In my newsletter last week, I wrote "Data’s still a mess. Most data initiatives fail. Data teams are seen as a cost center and not getting the support they deserve. Same as it ever was." Here, I unpack those four sentences. Data teams need to stop stop playing to not lose. Instead, they need to play to win!…

Navnit Shukla is a solutions architect with AWS. He joins me to chat about data wrangling and architecting solutions on AWS, writing books, and much more. Navnit is also in the Coursera Data Engineering Specialization, dropping knowledge on data engineering on AWS. Check it out! Data Wrangling on AWS: https://www.amazon.com/Data-Wrangling-AWS-organ…

I've spent the last three weeks visiting the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Here are my observations and anecdotes about the data and ML/AI industry from countless chats with executives, practitioners, and pundits.

Ilya Reznik has been in the ML game for ages, having worked at Adobe and Twitter and led teams at Meta, among others. We chat about leading ML teams, AI today, creating content, and much more. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibreznik/

As I travel this Fall, I'm reminded that most people don't work at fancy tech companies. Most people work at traditional companies with "boring" data and tech stacks. And that's OK. Boring is good.

Jordan Morrow has written a ton, including four books. We chat about the process of writing books, the ins and outs of working with a publisher, the role of AI in writing, and much more. If you're interested in writing a book, this is a crash course in what you should know. Enjoy!

Venkat Subramaniam is a programmer, author, speaker, and founder of Agile Developer, Inc. I've seen him speak several times, and was always blown away by his passion and technical depth. So, I was excited to have him on the podcast. We chat about agile development in the real world, learning to do less, and much more. Venkat is extremely wise, and …

Uncle Rico is a character in the movie Napoleon Dynamite, who is stuck in the past, reminiscing about his days as a high school football star. If only he'd won the game and went to the state championship. Some of the data industry reminds me of Uncle Rico. During a recent panel, there was a question about whether AI can help with data management (g…

Paco Nathan is a national treasure. He's not only an OG in the field of AI, but he's also instrumental in early hacker and cyberpunk culture. When I first met Paco, it suddenly clicked that I'd seen his name in various cyberpunk and alternative zines back in the 1990s. We have a chat all sorts of crazy stuff, and I feel like we only got to 5% of th…

Bethany Lyons and I chat about disrupting the recruitment industry, startups, and the future of work.

Last week I talked about how good you have to be at your job. Yesterday's OpenAI announcement of it's "reasoning" model, o1, got me thinking about how good AI needs to be to do our jobs.

Ergest Xheblati is a data architect and author of Minimum Viable SQL Patterns. We chat about the opportunities and challenges of SQL, things that don't change in tech and data, writing and publishing books, and much more. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ergestx/ Other links: https://www.ergestx.com/links/…

Dylan Anderson is a UK-based data strategist. We chat about bridging the gap between data and strategy, why talking about business value is a waste of time, and much more. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylansjanderson/ Substack: https://thedataecosystem.substack.com/

While speaking to one of my best friends, who's worked as a pilot for over 30 years, he mentioned that a "good" pilot doesn't crash the plane. In tech and data, "good" is viewed differently. How good you have to be at your job?

Jordan Tigani is back to chat about why small data is awesome, data lakehouses, DuckDB, AI, and much more. Motherduck: https://motherduck.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordantigani/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jrdntgn?lang=en

Demetrios Brinkmann is the co-founder of the massively global MLOps Community. We chat about AI hype vs reality, building a global tech community, and ROI of AI projects, and much more. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ MLOps Community: https://mlops.community/

"Do you and Zach Wilson hate each other?" I get asked questions like this, and it makes me laugh. We're good friends for the record. Most people play zero sum games, where one person wins and another loses. Questions like this got me thinking about how content creation is a positive sum game. You can consume content from many people, and this benef…

Vinoo Ganesh is an open source enthusiast and contributor, and a data and ML engineer. We chat about strong open source communities, LLMs and AI, and much more.

Lekhana Reddy is a data content creator focusing on mindfulness. We chat about how mindfulness in technology is key, especially given the need to maintain humanity with the rise of AI. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lekhanareddy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storytellingbydata/

Until recently, Nik Suresh wrote under a mysterious blog that had several viral posts, including the famous "I Will F*cking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again." For the longest time, he was an underground sensation, with nobody (not even his friends) knowing his identity. In this episode, we chat about his blog posts (I'm a huge fan), the realit…

I've been saying for years, most companies are barely doing BI, let alone AI. Last week, I posted about this on LinkedIn and it went viral. Here, I unpack what I mean by that post. The post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7230408663125913600

Rehgan Bleile joins me to chat about the challenges and importance of AI governance and adoption. We also discuss the lack of representation of women in conferences, and efforts to create genuine opportunities for women speakers. AlignAI: getalignai.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rehganavon/ Women in Analytics: https://www.womeninanalyti…

Most people approach their careers via 1:1 - 1 employee: 1 employer, 1 consultant: 1 client, etc. In this rant, I discuss why you should consider 1:many as a way to level up your career and visibility.

Christian Steinart and I chat about data consulting in unsexy and niche industries (like roofing in Christian's case). We go through starting a consultancy, the mental game of running a business, getting leads, and much more. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiansteinert96/

I've been head's down finishing my upcoming Data Engineering course on Coursera, and working on the new book. In this episode, I chat about the differences between courses and books, why high quality content matters more than ever in the age of AI, and much more. Enroll in the new DeepLearning.AI Data Engineering Professional Certificate course her…

Chris Bergh joins me to chat about all things DataOps. We also discuss lean, removing waste from data processes and teams, and much more. DataKitchen: https://datakitchen.io/ DataOps Manifesto: https://dataopsmanifesto.org/en/

Hanging out in Berlin right now. Re-read Peopleware (originally released in 1987), and it got me thinking about what hasn't changed in tech and data. Namely, we tend to rush through things in the name of productivity instead of focusing on quality. Will AI help this? Maybe and maybe not.

Lexi Pasi and I chat about symbolic logic in AI, building and managing data science teams, math, and the shapes of ML/AI problems. Lexi is one of my favorites to talk to because she's so left-field yet so effectively reasonable and logical (she does have a PhD in logic...).LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrapasi/…

I've been told that I "say the quiet parts out loud." It might be calling out "data science" and AI as overhyped, or anything else I've ranted about online over the years. In this episode, I unpack what that means and why I do it.

Joseph Machado and I chat about teaching data engineering, trends in data engineering, and the state of data content and influencers. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephmachado1991/ Website: https://www.startdataengineering.com/

Data can be a rough industry. Data professionals often feel alone and in need of someone to talk to. I've been hosting "data therapy" sessions for the last couple months. Here are my thoughts on them, and why I think they're critical to helping professionals feel heard and learn from others. Join here: https://practicaldatamodeling.substack.com/…

Paco Nathan and I chat about early chatbots, and all things AI, especially since the 1980s. We also riff on how we intersected in the early days of the Internet. Paco is one of my faves, so expect him back for another interview soon. X: https://twitter.com/pacoid LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceteri/…

Shachar Meir joins me for a chat about the three missing ingredients in data, going out on your own, the state of the data industry, and much more. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shacharmeir/

Matthew Mullins joins me to chat about a recent "get off my lawn" post along the lines that a lot of things we're trying to reinvent in data have already been done, and we're generally overcomplicating the hell out of things. I agree with him. In this episode, we rant about a few of the topics in his post. The post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/up…

Lindsay Murphy joins me to chat about whether companies are ready for AI in their data and analytics workflows. The verdict - listen and find out more :) Lindsay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaymurphy4/

It's not enough to know or peddle one data modeling technique these days. That's like fighting in the UFC knowing only thumb-wrestling. The world is very complicated with respect to data. To be a data practitioner, you need to be awesome in not just one, but MANY data modeling techniques. This is what I call Mixed Model Arts, which will be discusse…

What's up with Finland and data? I think Finland might have among the strongest contingencies of data practitioners in the world. Pound for pound, Finland might rule the planet for data competencies. I chat with the The Finnish Data Mafia, jokingly my friends who are responsible for the upcoming Helskini Data Week.…

Just wrapped up a course with Sol Rashidi on transitioning your career from practitioner to leader. The notion of "success" kept recurring, so I spend this podcast unpacking it. What is success and why should you figure out what it means for you?

This wasn't the interview I expected to do. I thought I'd interview Nick Freund about his startup, Workstream. Between the time we scheduled our podcast and when we hit the record button, he shut down his company. That's a pretty major shift, to say the least. What's it like to shut down a company? Nick discusses the various pivots of his startup, …