I have been working with relational databases, specifically SQL Server, for a while now. It’s not fun having a bicycle shop that loses money as the primary example database for me to play with. It doesn’t really let me work on something with a reasonable amount of data. Or even tackle a end-to-end solution, because the thing is already in the end state. For a long time I wondered how I can build something realistic to take “real” data and factor it into a solution. Not that the solution will be the greatest, but it is meant as a learning exercise. Who knows what could happen next, I see, learn from and work with very talented people everyday across the interwebz.
The plan
- Get a development environment set up.
- Pick a topic or architecture
- Find supporting services or data. Think public data sets.
- Get a source code repo going.
- Set up a way to track my work and manage deployments.
- Start building a minimal viable product and keep it going.
- Monitor it, optimise it, extend it, enhance it, energise it 🛸.
- Learns all the things.. ok maybe not all, but something..
Why?
Well, things move so quickly in the tech world today. I have a tough time keeping up. I didn’t go to university, I didn’t start out in IT (or even a inclination to be in it), and there are a bunch of other reasons why I landed the role of impostor syndrome in every job I had so far. I think there are very many people in that same boat, we might be sharing a seat. By God’s grace many people showed me mercy as I started in this industry, and many who I look up to. With this approach I get to continually build something end-to-end learning as I go. More importantly I try give back what I learn. Whether it’s setting up an IDE, learning more about source control, dealing with CI/CD issues, and expanding my skills in optimisation. This way I set up a tangible and long-lived learning experience that I pray others can use and learn from. It’s going to be raw, it’s new, it is a bit scary for me, but I hope you enjoy it.
That being said. Let’s get to it.
Want to keep track of my progress? Take a look at my project tracking.
Anthony Fourie 