Say Thank You

06Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 25 Comments

I was approached by a man at SQL Bits who only wanted to thank me for blogging. He said, “I know you probably never hear from anyone, but you should. Thanks for what you do.” I’m not mentioning his name because he promised me he’d write an editorial for publication, so I’m going to wait on him to get that done so he gets full credit then, not on my silly blog post.

But, the idea stuck with me.

I realized, that I don’t do it. Oh yeah, I have an “Interesting Reading” set of links that I post to Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Sharing is “thanking” in our modern vernacular, right? No, of course not. It’s not the same. I really do appreciate the help that I get on the internet. Some of you are youngsters and don’t remember what it was like before the World Wide Web, even before America Online, before CompuServe, before the Bulletin Board Systems. We used to have to learn everything from books. EVERYTHING. We either knew someone who knew answers, or we suffered in ignorance. We walked to school and back home through 8 feet of snow, uphill, both ways… wait, where was I? Seriously, we have it good today. Better still, the SQL Server community is awesome for it’s sharing (oversharing even). There is almost limitless, free, good, information out there. The people who are generating it deserve your thanks.

So, if you read a blog post, and it was useful, take the time to post a quick thank you. Just do it.

For myself, I’m trying to think of a new blog series for thanking people.

In the mean time, real fast, in no order, no links, but very serious and heartfelt thanks to:

Kalen, Paul, Itzik, Brent, Tom, Tim, Adam, Wes, Benjamin, Kim, Don, Denny, Allan, Allen, Erin, Steve, Andy, Karen, Gail, Johnathan, and a bunch of people I’m not thinking of at the moment.

I’ve learned so much from you guys, for free. You’ve made a positive impact in my career. Thank you. I promise to try to do more to show that appreciation in the future.

25 thoughts on “Say Thank You”

  • Ta

    Thank you for reminding us. I agree 100% we all need to do. I even do not know if I would survive as DBA with out you guys putting out everything online and free.

    Reply
  • Erin Stellato

    As my mom would say, “you’re a one-r”. That means you’re one of a kind, in a very good way. Thank you for not just what you write, but for what you teach, for your tweets that motivate me in ways you don’t even know, and for your endless enthusiasm that comes through in everything you do.

    Reply

  • As someone who remembers walking up hill through the snow both ways to school I agree. Thank you! and not just for the blogging but for the presentations you give (particularly the performance pre-con) and the books and everything else.

    Interesting timing for your post though since this months T-SQL Tuesday is #sqlfamily. It’s a good tie in.

    Reply
  • David Moutray

    Amen, amen & amen. Hardly a day passes that I do not use material that someone else took the time to post on the internet.

    I would also add one more person to your list of people to thank, Louis Davidson. His series of books on Database Design are absolutely fantastic. I swear his first book on SQL Server 2000 got me my first job as a DBA. I owe him big-time.

    And thank you, too, Grant. You have always gone out of your way to share your time, your knowledge and your experience. I imagine your generosity to others has repaid you a healthy dividend, but – as the saying goes – “What goes around, comes around.” That’s just karma.

    Thank you for reminding us to appreciate the gifts we receive from others. Remembering to say, “Thank You”, is really the very least we can do in return.

    This is an excellent blog post.

    Reply
  • Ralph Wilson

    Grant,

    Like so many others, I have benefited so much from your blog and twitter posts. Thank you for being willing to share your experiences … not only in the SQL Server arena but in the Life In General arena.

    Thank you, especially, for this particular post.

    Reply
  • Steve Long

    Thanks, Grant, for all that you do. Excellent blog post!
    You’re right, it’s all too easy to read an article or a blog post and think “That’s an interesting technique, I never would have thought of that. I’ll bookmark it for future reference” and then just go back to our busy day without taking the minute or two it takes to let the author know that you appreciate what they did by writing the article or post. Now that sending the thank you is as easy as clicking on a Reply button (no postage or envelopes required), that’s really inexcusable.
    Once again, thank you! 🙂

    Reply
  • Bob Henkel

    I’d like to thank Grant directly and double the thank you because of the indirect learning via my local DBA Tracy McKibben. Kind of cool how some good knowledge can be passed around. Kind of like a cold, but a good cold.

    A simple diagram would be:
    Grant->Tracy-Bob->Others
    ->Bob->Others

    Reply
  • Neeraj

    Thank you very much, to you, Brent, Paul, Adam, Glen all other bloggers and experts who share their knowledge and experience with us.

    Reply
  • Richard Van Veen

    Sorry, I didn’t give my full name.
    You are so right.
    I just want to add my thanks and appreciation to you and all the other people you mentioned, and all the others who give their time and advice to everyone through blogs, books, forums, etc.
    We really appreciate it, and it helps make our community stronger.

    Reply
  • Rich

    Came to be scared. Left disappointed.
    😉

    Thanks for your blogs, articles, and books, Grant, and especially thank you for a kick-a$$ attitude that draws in the reader!

    Reply

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