Decades of Data and Design Thinking

Lunch with Mike Storey is no ordinary experience. It is truly an opportunity to take a deep dive into the world of database structure and solution architecture, and learn information that ‘you never knew you needed to know’, but which is truly fascinating! Mike agreed to let me have free range questioning for an hour, and my perception of quite a few topics are forever altered after our chat.  Our conversation focused on the continuous evolution of programming over the last forty years. We dug into databases and how the title of developer means something completely different than it used to. 

After twenty years as a solutions architect, Mike brings a lot of wisdom to the table. Witnessing the historic march from punch cards, basic and COBOL, to the founding of Oracle and the history of IBM, and now the current land of endless innovation and programming choices, has left him with with some key insights. He tells me that code hasn’t fundamentally changed, the way we access information has.  This is what drives the ripple effects we all see and feel in the technology infrastructure. From back  in the days of recording code on literal tape reels to the AI and machine learning race we are in today, coding is fundamentally about directions and data. How do we capture data, what data do we want to capture, and what are we going to coerce technology to do for us with it. 

This led naturally into addressing the the explosion of choices for developers and architects to work with.  Mike explains that amid the current plethora of technology tools, languages, and frameworks, the best teams take a look at the skills they have and start analyzing the best tools to solve the problems at hand. Yes there will be times where teams have to branch out and adopt new tools, but overall almost all languages have an eco system included and around them that will be able to solve most problems. The key is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each tool in your toolbox and the ability to discover how to make them work together. 

He in no way downplays the value of knowing what will be most beneficial for  your team to learn next , and when to start making the move. Mr. Storey shares that at the core of every developer is a student that never stops learning. It is impossible to stay stagnant with your knowledge base and expect to thrive, but this doesn’t mean you have to jump to a new tool for every project. The foundations of coding spread across almost every language, and once a developer has a good grasp on them, learning new languages is not as intimidating as it seems. He shared that his father learned three or four languages over an entire career. In Mikes forty year career he estimates he has learned thirty to forty, and expects to pick up a few more before he retires. We have to build a solid foundation of understanding and expect to keep adding to it for the span of our careers. 

When chatting about the transformation in hiring practices, he explained how being able to provide a “demonstration of art” exercise changed the game. Toward the start of his career, it was never even imagined to ask for this from a prospective employee. Even a few decades ago it was still mostly unheard of. The fact that developers can build at such an accelerated speed has made this a possibility. 

Mike and I discussed how technology has changed in waves over the decades. The progression of data storage from being slow and expensive to cheap and expansive has radically modified the landscape and opened the door to some of the most stark changes. The less hindered movement of data opened the doors for markup data such as XML and JSON to come along. The world of data was forever and irrevocably changed.  The use of indexes, relational databases, and being able to move past solely using SQL demanded a new breed of logic, planning and developer all together.  

The topic of the future for technology as a whole brought us to a discussion on microservices. Mike feels this is the next “wave of change” that will permanently alter the tech scene as a whole. Over the last forty years major shifts have resulted from the introduction of the first affordable “computer book”, the option of synchronous/asynchronous data, granularization, cloud infrastructure, and now we are looking at micro-services to ride the next big wave.  

As we are all figuring out how to navigate this swiftly changing current, Mike leaves us with some advice. The best developers truly enjoy and often engage in puzzle solving, insatiable curiosity, and continuous learning. In order to grow at an ideal rate and still master skills, he suggests spending twenty percent of your time either learning new tools, or gaining a deeper understanding of new technologies, trends etc. 

Although this interview in no way does service to the entire conversation Mr. Storey and I had, I hope it sums up the fact that we must always be on the lookout, we must always be questioning, and we must always be discovering. There is no telling where we will have technology take us next !

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/mike-storey/

https://twenty-in-tech.herokuapp.com/blog/