Jordan Morrow and I hung out at my house and chatted about all things data literacy, the great outdoors, and more. Enjoy!

What am I seeing in data engineering in 2024? Listen and find out.

Steve Nouri has a massive following on LinkedIn, travels the world speaking at conferences and advising companies, and most recently created a community - Generative AI, on LinkedIn. We chat about being an influencer, building and growing a community, and much more.

I often get some questions - What happened to data modeling? Where do I learn data modeling? Where the heck is your new book?

Well, at least some of your questions will be answered in this podcast.

I'm launching a new project called Practical Data Modeling on Substack. You'll get weekly articles, early chapters of my new data modeling book, community discussions, and much more.

Subscribe to Practical Data Modeling: https://practicaldatamodeling.substack.com/

It's that time of year - lots of predictions and resolutions. I rant about my thoughts on New Years predictions and resolutions, stuff I'm stoked on in 2024, and more.

I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you for your support. It means a ton.

Happy 2024!!!

Will Gaviria Rojas (co-founder of CoactiveAI) and I sit in a hotel bar and chat about the amazing world of unstructured data and AI. We chat about searching unstructured datasets (without metadata), the state of AI, and much more. Will is one of my favorite people in general, so I really enjoyed our chat. Enjoy!

What happens when AI can generate content about whatever - or whoever - whether it's true or not? Welcome to 2023 and beyond.

I think the Internet is about to become a sea of complete sh*t of uninteresting and inaccurate content. The value of most content on the Internet will be less than worthless.

What can content creators and authors do? I provide some ideas...

Just wrapped up a couple of days at the CDO/CAIO Summit in Boston. There are a lot of corporate mandates to "do AI", but also a disconnect in the support and empowerment required to succeed. I unpack some observations of this disconnect, and why it reminds of of the South Park Underpants Gnomes - "AI...?...Profit"

Eleanor Thompson is the most knowledgeable person I know on the topic of vendor partnerships. We dive into the details of what makes a great partnership, tips on starting a partner program, certifications, and much more.

Are you a technology or data vendor looking to start a partnership program, or improve your existing one? Or a consulting company looking to partner with a vendor? Having worked with many partners, I can tell you that partnerships have always had ups and downs. I wish I'd listened to this episode several years ago. Enjoy!

Ben Rogojan, aka Seattle Data Guy, needs no introduction. He's a force of nature in the data engineering content world.

We chat about his origin story (sort of like a superhero), content creation, consulting, cooking, and much more.

You may have heard of Live Action Role Playing (LARP), where people dress up like fantasy characters and sword fight in a park or a Wal Mart parking lot. Some data teams LARP too...

Data LARPs are a real thing, often identified by pretending to do "data stuff", while never actually pushing anything into production. Are you Data LARPing? If so, what can you do? Listen and find out.

Matt Harrison is the author of many of the most successful Python books, including Effective Pandas, Effective XGBoost, The Machine Learning Pocket Reference, and many more. I consider him the top author of Python books and content on the planet.

He stopped by my house to chat about self-publishing technical books, the pros and cons of using a publisher, book piracy, and much more. We both talk about our experiences as best-selling technical authors, and don't hold back in this wide ranging and very candid conversation. Enjoy!

Note - my audio got a bit clippy in spots. Sorry if I blew up your speaker.

Karin Wolok and I chat about all things devrel - what it is, why it matters, the good the bad, and everything in between. We also talk about her time in the music industry, which is a fascinating side thread. Karin is amazingly smart, energetic, and fun to talk with. Enjoy!

Note - this was recorded right after the awesome DEWCon, the premier data engineering conference in Bangalore, India. Shoutout to everyone there!

Like most of you, I spent last weekend and the earlier part of this week following the OpenAI drama. Plot-twists galore! Every minute seemed like a new adventure. In the midst of the plot twists and turns, I noticed quite a few people saying, "This was all predictable", and then offering prognostications, most of which turned out to be very wrong. If even the OpenAI insiders couldn't figure out what was going on, how would the person on the street?

It's a good reminder that you need to approach the world with a sense of humility and try not to be a know-it-all. Don't be afraid to say "I don't know."

Peggy Tsai joins me to chat about a ton of hard topics. We chat about how to set up Chief Data Officers for success (not easy), data maturity, data and ESG, and a ton more. Enjoy this very wide-ranging chat.

Katharine Jarmul and I chat about the Biden AI Executive Order. Enjoy!

Dave McComb (CEO of Semantic Arts) is one of the most thoughtful and original people I know in the data space, having pioneered the use of semantics and knowledge graphs in the 1990s. We talk about a wide range of topics, including interoperability at the data level, the data-centric revolution, and much more.

Note - there was a weird and unresolved connection issue that caused some static at varying points during our call.

Marketing is a well-established field, yet there is still a massive gulf between CEO and CMO expectations. If CMOs are still trying to get traction with their CEOs, what hope do Chief Data Officers have? I rant about this.

WSJ article: Divide Between CMOs and CEOs is Growing: https://www.wsj.com/articles/divide-between-cmos-and-ceos-is-growing-research-finds-a73374f4?st=bcayeo7wc9j18fd&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Bill Inmon and I sat down in his home over a weekend to tell me the history of the data industry. This is a very rare and wide-ranging conversation about the dawn and evolution of the data industry, straight from the godfather himself.

In my global travels, I've spoken to countless practitioners and leaders in the data field. I discuss two common themes of questions I get - "How do I work with the business?" and "What tools should I use?"

Matt Sharp and Chris Brousseau join me to chat about writing their new book "LLMs in Production" (Manning). What's it like to write a book in a field that's changing at light speed? How do two people write a book together? We dive into this and much more.

Note - we recorded this outside at the Utah State Capitol. There's a bit of background noise, but it hopefully doesn't distract from the conversation. It was too nice of a day to be stuck inside :)

I’m at the Gitex Dubai conference. It’s huge, with 170k in attendance! There’s a lot of hype about AI. I unpack my thoughts on the latest AI hype cycle in my usual ranty manner. Enjoy!

Johnny Graettinger (CTO of Estuary) joins the show to give a clinic on streaming and immutable logs. We cover a lot of ground in this technical deep dive. Enjoy!

Estuary: https://estuary.dev/

Gazette: https://gazette.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Github (Estuary Flow): https://github.com/estuary/flow

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngraettinger/

Just wrapped up DEWCon, a great data engineering conference in Bangalore, India. I've participated in most data engineering events around the world this year, and I keep seeing the same things - data engineers seek guidance, mentorship, and a sense of best practices. I think we can build a global data engineering community that helps data engineers level up and share their experiences.

Bob Muglia joins the show to talk about why we need to move beyond SQL, semantic models, the power of knowledge graphs, the past, present, and future of databases, and much more.

Bob has a storied history in the data space, having significant involvement with Microsoft Office, SQL Server, Snowflake (former CEO), and much more. It's rare to meet someone with such a deep involvement in the creation of our industry, and this was a fascinating conversation.

Also, check out Bob's book, "The Datapreneurs." One of the best books about the data industry I've read in ages.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-muglia/

X: https://twitter.com/Bob_Muglia

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Datapreneurs-Promise-Creators-Building-Future-ebook/dp/B0BZQFJ5RP