Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started - David Allen

Undertaking new projects comes to me with ease. The dark side of “let’s start” attitude is that it shifts the focus from ongoing initiatives to new and engaging ideas. David Allen, the creator of the “Getting Things Done” method, accurately describes the source of my stress. It’s time to declutter my mind.

Nobody would argue that experiencing a memory blackout on a stage is horrifying. All of a sudden you can’t get a word out, the brain gets unplugged, and your shame level rises sharply - the situation no one wants to encounter. Public speaking is a stressful situation, and memory glitches shouldn’t surprise anyone. Hence, learning the text by heart is not the best strategy. Here is one technique I find useful.

A few weeks ago I got an idea to create a set of programming tutorials for non-developers. Since I had been receiving questions about developer’s career and how to become one, I thought of creating digestible guides to show how easy it is to start coding. In a way: “Look, it’s as simple as riding a bike, you should be ashamed you haven’t googled it by yourself. In 60 min you can host a website, write a web crawler, store and analyze data. Do you still make excuses for not learning it?”

Azure SQL Data Warehouse (SQL DW) is a PaaS platform that takes advantage of Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) to run complex queries. It provides high-performance analytics on petabytes of data only if you satisfy the requirements. Thus make sure you understand optimal usage and limitations of SQL DW. Here is a list of links and resources I find useful:

Over the last years, I have worked on many prototyping initiatives, with duration ranging from one week to six months. I have used such experiments to reduce risks associated with new and unproven tools or services. I am specializing in data analytics, data engineering and cloud infrastructure (Azure). All those areas are evolving rapidly, and it’s a challenge to stay on top of the latest updates. Hence, prototyping helps me to identify technology weaknesses early in the process.

Even a simple drawing can clarify any idea and captivate readers. Either you write about emotions, talk about science or communicate software architecture, a coherent diagram will always help. In this blog post, I introduce Dan Roam teachings.

Delegating tasks to local team members is already tricky. Delegating tasks to people distributed all over the world opens another Pandora’s box. Leadership courses, coaching exercises or delegation drills give a solid foundation, but once the rubber meets the road, you are on your own.

If I had to recommend only one book on leadership, it would be Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Jocko, a former SEAL units leader, trainer, business consultant, book author, podcast host, uses military and war stories to explain the nuances of leadership. A mistake in business might cause a project failure, lost client, bankruptcy. Even the worst-case scenario in business is far away from the combat mistakes outcome - death.