The three words that will serve you well are: “I don’t know.”
We can’t know everything. We just can’t, it’s not possible.
The sooner you come to peace with this fact the better.
This has never been more true in the field of Data Engineering. The data industry is exploding.
Every other day, some new whatchamacallit, thingamabob, or doodah gets released, designed to make the world of Data Engineering and data in general easier. When this happens, it’s up to you to add it to the ever-growing list of things to have a vague, if not semi-good, understanding of.
You may change jobs — your new company may not use dbt or Airflow, but instead, use Prefect and Databricks. Sooner or later, you will run into a situation where you don’t have the answers.
During my transition into Data Engineering, I faced countless days of hopelessness staring at the sheer amount of things to learn or problems to fix.
That’s when I developed the mindset of saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out”.
So what do you do if you don’t know something?
The trick here is to have the determination and perseverance to go out and find the answers. Only then can you learn and grow.
I had a manager once tell me “If you don’t know how to do something, go try to figure it out, research, test and try a few things. Then come to me because the chances are that those things you try are the things I’m going to try and then we can solve it together.”
The place to find the answers
- The internet is a bottomless pit of answers and solutions the trick is finding the answers. Google, YouTube and official documentation your choices are endless.
- Create a test environment build, destroy and understand things. It’s only then that you get to grips with a problem and can find a solution.
- Join a community the number of people out there who are willing to help you if you would only ask always amazes me.
- The sheer volume of courses and books available to us for self-education is staggering. All that is needed is some motivation, time and a click of a button and it’s yours. What a time to be alive.
- ChatGPT all the answers and none of them at your fingertips. With a little common sense, ChatGPT could be useful if you can weed out the garbage.
We live in a world where people try to avoid ignorance and come up with elaborate ways to hide it. Nothing is more powerful to me than someone who is never afraid to say “I don’t know”. Having the courage to admit it will allow you to learn and grow.
Thanks for reading! If you want to get in touch with me, feel free to find me on LinkedIn.