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Erik Gfesser

📍 Greater Chicago Area

Community Comment: Part 29 - Usage of normalized versus denormalized data storage is dependent on usage patterns

* Normalized versus denormalized data * Data storage dependent on usage patterns * Denormalized data makes reads efficient * Normalized data makes writes efficient The comments I provided in reaction to a community discussion thread. CEO at Business Intelligence Product Firm: After 100s of conversations with analytics engineers, I'm convinced the way

Community Comment: Part 28 - Technical debt is actually a subset of organizational debt

* Not all technical debt is the same * Discussion with purported CTOs * Technical debt is subset of organizational debt * Business + technology = "our business" The comments I provided in reaction to a community discussion thread. Fractional CTO and "Engineering Management Expert": "Technical debt? Is that a joke?

Community Comment: Part 27 - Assessment is needed when deciding between transactional and analytical modeling

* Transactional versus analytical modeling * Discussion with purported staff data engineer * Making broad generalizations doesn't help * Quoting $ savings in vacuum not advised The comments I provided in reaction to a community discussion thread. Owner of Data Engineering Training Firm and former Staff Data Engineer at Airbnb: If you model

New Book Review: "Running Toward Life"

New book review for Running Toward Life: Finding Community and Wisdom in the Distances We Run, by John Trent, Broad Book Press, 2023: Copy provided by Amazon. Trent mentions in his introduction that his hope in writing this book is to speak to various phases of one's running

New Book Review: "The Threshold"

New book review for The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI, by Nick Chatrath, Diversion Books, 2023: Copy provided by Amazon. In the introductory pages of this book, Chatrath states that "this book functions as a first foray into exploring what good leadership looks like in the present

Media Query Source: Part 45 - Reworked (US digital magazine); OpenAI & the Databricks-Microsoft AI alliance

* Reworked (US digital magazine) * OpenAI & the Databricks-Microsoft AI alliance * Databricks available on AWS, Azure & GCP * Microsoft providing AI options makes sense My responses ended up being included in an article at Reworked (September 7, 2023). Extent of verbatim quote highlighted in orange, paraphrased quote highlighted in gray. Above

Media Query Source: Part 44 - InformationWeek (US digital magazine); Top Tips for Weeding Out Bad Data

* InformationWeek (US digital magazine) * Best way to weed out bad data * "Bad data": low quality or inappropriate data * Acquire, cleanse, standardize & model data My responses ended up being included in an article at InformationWeek (June 26, 2023). Extent of verbatim quote highlighted in orange, paraphrased quote highlighted

Community Comment: Part 26 - With respect to data normalization, performance is key

* Normalized versus denormalized data * Discussion with purported training firm CEO * Performance is important consideration * More factors involved than just record count The comments I provided in reaction to a community discussion thread. Founder & CEO of "Big Data" Training Firm: Normalization vs Denormalization Normalization is a process of

Media Query Source: Part 43 - CNBC (US business news television channel); Benefits of using self-service analytics tools

* CNBC (US business news television channel) * Benefits of using self-service analytics tools * Timely, custom exploratory analyses enabled * Appropriate data governance needed The responses I provided to a media outlet on March 3, 2023: Media: I'm working on an article about the benefits of using self-service analytics tools, and

Counterpoint (7 Years Later) - 20 Questions to Detect Fake Data Scientists

Gfesser via Midjourney: "Anime painting of horse wearing a sweater and working on a laptop, sitting in a corner office overlooking the Chicago River." Erik on Software anniversary post #500. Almost exactly seven years ago, I published what was for a long time one of my most popular