Over the past 3 years, I have logged a lot of hours on the road, sharing cold beers with other kindred souls all over the country, who happen to be haunting the same SQL Saturday or Code Camp.

Most of the people I befriend are, like me, happily entrenched in all manner of SQL-related tasks, whereby their host company pays them handsomely in return for tapping daily into their brain banks and extracting efficient database solutions to core business problems. We talk enthusiastically about the specific technologies we employ is these solutions, such as data marts, Microsoft Reporting Services, SharePoint and PowerShell.

However, a few beers down the road, we often stray from technical talk; like many of my fellow spooks, I am also passionate about non-SQL subjects such has fiction writing, traveling, Science and parapsychology (ghost hunting). I often pose the same hypothetical question that I ask myself, especially on stressful days or late nights:

"Tomorrow morning, you wake up and find you have enough money never to have to work another day. You can travel anywhere in the world and buy as many toys as you need to support your interests. Would you continue to work with SQL-related technologies?"

The responses were mixed. One or two, it is clear, would never write another query or build another server ever again. The vast majority, however, claimed that SQL would remain part of their lives in some way. The hours would be shorter and it would be on their terms, but they would still work with SQL Server.

Me? Well, I can certainly envision that fairy tale world, where I have my own server room, raised floors and a fridge in the corner full of soda, and I can dive into personal SQL projects, like finally building that federated SQL farm.

What about everyone else? I wonder what and how much you would do in SQL, or any other beloved technology, if you did not have to.

Rodney Landrum (Guest Editor)