This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Andy Leonard at andyleonard.blog . Andy asks us, what is your “Why?”

So what is my Why? Well, I want to talk about a few things I do.

My current job and why

Currently I work primarily as a performance focused DBA. I originally took this job because I found performance really intriguing. I was curious to learn more and be able to devote more of my time to improving database performance

My Why, or the reason I keep doing this job, is a number of factors. First, I work with a great team of intelligent and kind DBAs, who teach me things everyday.

Second, I really enjoy improving the database so that users have a better experience. When I get a chance to hear that I helped someone, it makes my job so satisfying.

Third, the challenge. It seems like there’s always something new to learn or a new problem to solve. For example, last week we were contacted about a specific function running slowly. I discovered it was a new issue to me. The data and statistics had changed in specific index, causing the query to pick a different, sub-optimal index every time it ran.

The reason I started blogging

Some of my friends have asked me why I’m blogging so much. Back in December, I made a commitment to myself to blog about something I found interesting every day.

It all started on seths.blog . Seth Godin is a marketer, and he writes a daily blog. I couldn’t find the post that inspired me, but one of the posts said something to the effect of ‘I’ve never met someone who blogged daily for 100 days and regretted it.’

When I read that sentence, I knew I had to commit to trying it. And here we are! I crossed 60 blog posts this week, so I still have many to go before I reach 100.

Wrap-up

Thanks for the invite, Andy! I enjoyed taking the time to think about all the Whys in my life.

Stay tuned!