Microsoft announced the release of the next version of SQL Server, 2022. There's a bunch of new enhancements that we can all get excited about. I can't wait to test the "Parameter Sensitive Plan" optimization myself. We can look forward to seeing this stuff in action, and in detail, at the PASS Data Community Summit (and it's not too late to register, this year is free, and positively amazing) in a bunch of sessions put on by Microsoft.

I'm not even going to hide it. I'm thrilled. I want to dig in and learn all the new stuff and play with the new shiny toys. Happily, my job makes that, not only possible, but a bit of requirement. Not everyone is in the same boat.

That's OK.

Some organizations are slower than others in terms of upgrading (and yeah, I know, some organizations are frozen in amber). This makes learning the new tech less interesting, and, frankly, less of a priority. I get that, and it's OK. Also, some individuals are simply not in a place where they're learning the new technology. They haven't mastered the old technology yet, and the fundamentals haven't truly changed and must be learned. These people are going to be focusing on backups, restores, Extended Events, query tuning, and all the rest. I think that's fantastic as well. Still others are just in a bit of a holding pattern on their career path and aren't that interested in learning new stuff. Again, that's more than fine. I wouldn't argue with anyone in any of these situations.

We really are, all of us, on a spectrum across what we're learning and when we're learning it. Some of us are able to play with the new shiny stuff faster than others. Some of us aren't interested in the new shiny stuff at all. Some of us are just in other head spaces. It's all good. What really matters isn't where you are specifically in this, it's how you choose to deal with it, how you interact at work, how you help your co-workers, taking care of your loved ones, all that stuff. That's what matters. It doesn't hurt to remember that sometimes when all you can hear around you is people shouting about what's new. It also doesn't hurt to remember that when you're the one shouting.