I don’t know why I stopped blogging, probably because I am lazy or easily distracted. But this annual opportunity to say thanks to some people who has helped me a lot shouldn’t be missed (I did last year). Tim Hall aka ORACLE-BASE organizes an annual virtual Thanksgiving for us Oracle nerds .
Expressing gratitude is a strange thing. Why do we say thanks? Frequently we do it just to be polite, but for me, the most honest feeling of gratitude comes after when someone has solved a big problem for me. If I suspect that the person helping me is unaware of how much difference it made, I find it even more important to say “Thank you!” Giving thanks isn’t always easy, the more sincere it is the more awkard it gets. But given this opportunity when a good part of the Oracle community does the same, I have the excuse. So thank you, Tim, for giving us this opportunity (Is this a meta-thank you?)
There are people who do their day job, and others who go out of their way to help. Some give a presentation, while others give a presentation, allow for Q&A, and follows you to the bar after.
Who am I writing about? It is a special group of Oracle employees who spend a substantial amount of time away from their families going to conferences in order to share new knowledge and insight. I don’t go to much regular training these days because I can learn most tech on my own, but after a while I have lots of questions that can’t be answered from ordinary material. On conferences I have had many a great conversation with product managers who are willing to listen and to give advice. Rarely am I suffering a sales pitch, quite often I get an off the record answer that sends me in the right direction. I have had many interesting conversations about the small and big issues in life, not necessarily connected to tech, with these people. It has helped to balance the impression one might get of the big Oracle Corp. Also knowing that the database is made and maintained by people who really know their computer science, by people I can meet at conferences makes me trust this old software even more.
I could have listed some names, or at least a bunch of Twitter tags, but then I would surely forget some. So to all product managers, community advocates and general good people working for Oracle that I have met at conferences for the last 17 years or so: Thank you!