People can and do make the difference
1-Minute (or Less) Summary
I am writing this less than a week away from Oracle’s big user conference, Oracle CloudWorld. It is a live conference in Las Vegas, NV, USA from October 17-20, 2022. But, it is also a virtual conference. Just because you can’t go, doesn’t mean you can’t go.
The Whole Story
Here’s an ugly truth… you can’t know everything. I know! I know! I should have prepared you first for such a startling revelation. While this really isn’t a surprise, it is sometimes surprising how we treat ourselves when we don’t know everything.
For example, the Oracle documentation for Oracle Database is huge. Just the direct books for Oracle 21c, if you download them (here is the link to do so), is nearly 700MB. If you add all the labs, videos, blogs, and other supporting materials, it is easily twice that size. If you read everything from cover-to-cover, it would probably take you years, and would be out-of-date before you could complete it. So! It is fundamentally impossible to know it all, because it simply takes time you do not have.
SO! What the heck can you do? For starters, and by far the easiest solution, is you can send me $4.2 billion dollars, and I will see that you have all the information you require.
If you do not have a spare $4.2 billion laying around, what can you do? Meet people!
NO! I am not talking about anything that involves downloading an app, looking at pictures, and swiping some direction. Nope! Not at all! I am talking about going to, whether in person or virtually, the Oracle CloudWorld conference.
Wait? How can I meet people virtually? Well, sometimes you just need to know who to follow and listen to for the advice that is of specific interest to you. Even virtually, you can do this by listening to the presentations by Oracle. I’ve also given you a head start on some people on my Oracle Database people page. Many of these folks are active on Twitter, and you can get the latest updates you need.
You can also join Oracle’s Customer Community, and interact with and learn from key people there.
After all, you cannot know everything. But, you can sometimes know some people who can either directly or indirectly (you know, that whole 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon-thing). Now, excuse me, while I go calculate my own Bacon number. Because while I have a chance at a Bacon number, I have no chance of an Erdős number.
Go forth and Conference! After looking at it, it’s kinda just another form of UA. Well, I am going to stick with that, and hope that my boss accepts it. If so, I’ll see you at all those conferences. But, I am not holding my breath.
