Although SQL is well regarded among professional developers, it is strangely

6 min readDec 9, 2020

If Zoom Dick has reinforced anything about journalism, it’s the reminder of a stark stratification in the industry. There are people who feel totally fine literally jerking off at work and collecting a comfortable paycheck, while the media underclass writes SEO posts in a permanent stress-crouch position for barely enough money to cover rent. You’re a figurative Toobin, or you’re writing 7 posts a day, wondering if you’ll be allowed back in the office to collect the stuff on your desk if you get let go in the looming next round of layoffs, or if they’ll just throw out your succulent and your notepads when they decide to shift to permanent WFH in a few months because of the overhead rent costs.

Without getting too much into the details, one possible solution among others to handle these situations is to use “locks”. Of course, each solution has its own use cases and limitations.

Python remains an interesting coding language to learn especially for aspiring data scientists. Its importance in data science should not be overlooked or underestimated. But SQL remains the dark horse for the edge, which it gives one over other candidates when the competition for a position is fierce.

An example of that will be when a post on social media goes viral and millions of people interact with it simultaneously resulting in intertwined operations on the database, which leads to constrains violation and many more unwanted results.

(“The suggestion that The Bee is tying journalists’ pay to clicks is inaccurate,” Lauren Gustus, the editor of the Bee, told the Sacramento Business Journal. “We are proposing performance metrics that measure readership and engagement to better serve our communities. This is a concept both parties agreed to in prior sessions and is one component of a comprehensive performance management process that measures performance against standards and goals.”)

The Toobins get talking heads spots on cable news networks. They often look like him, too. “Diversity” at media companies gets siloed into social media and low-paying editorial roles, the cogs that allow the machine to keep turning, lets the Toobins keep, uh, cranking along. The low-paid grunt workers feed the content mines, absorb the social blowback from a hastily written headline, and allow for the Toobins of the world to continue their largely metaphorical — but sometimes literal — masturbatory practices.Race Condition is a recurring problem in Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). It happens when millions or billions of operations are performed on a database at the same time.The Toobins get talking heads spots on cable news networks. They often look like him, too. “Diversity” at media companies gets siloed into social media and low-paying editorial roles, the cogs that allow the machine to keep turning, lets the Toobins keep, uh, cranking along. The low-paid grunt workers feed the content mines, absorb the social blowback from a hastily written headline, and allow for the Toobins of the world to continue their largely metaphorical — but sometimes literal — masturbatory practices.

Not everyone is required to know both the languages though. Most widely used technologies have a wrapper for the other language to make the product more acceptable. The most common example of this is PySpark which allows Data Engineers to use Python to interact with Spark.There are slight differences in the syntax of SQL software. This can be annoying since not all businesses use the same software. Hence one should learn at least the most used ones such as MySQL and SQL Server.Before we get to cabbage (I know… the anticipation), I wanted to let you know that on Tuesday, November 10, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST I’ll be doing a live (virtual) event all about Thanksgiving 2020. The event is a collaboration with Knowable — the company that just launched my audiocourse, How To Eat Now — and will hopefully be both fun and useful. We’ll talk about the unique challenges of Thanksgiving in 2020, how to de-stress the holiday in this unprecedentedly stressful year, how to shop, cook, host, etc. Anyone in the audience can ask me whatever they want, which I love. You can register for the event here. It’s totally free, though a donation to support One Fair Wage is always appreciated. I hope you’ll join. Now, on to cabbage.
To shred cabbage, cut the head into quarters, slice out the hard white core, and cut crosswise into thin strips (to shred napa cabbage, just cut the whole thing crosswise). Whatever method you use to shred cabbage for coleslaw (maybe you have one of those old-fashioned wooden graters) will work here. These recipes should serve four generously.
To celebrate the flexibility of cabbage (OK, maybe “commend” is a more suitable word for such a humble vegetable), here are 12 recipes that I turn to throughout the season. They’re broken into four categories: Braised, Raw, Soup, and Stir-Fried. I suppose you could call the raw ones “slaw,” though none of them bear any resemblance to the stuff that’s drowning in mayo and sugar. The other three methods here do apply heat, ranging from the hot blast of the skillet to the gentleness of a braise to a quick bath in a bubbling broth. Taste often for doneness; the key is to let the cabbage soften and lose its raw edge while still retaining some of its crunch. (For whatever it’s worth, and if you’re so inclined, cabbage is also really incredible on the grill.)

I’ve made suggestions for which type of cabbage to use in which recipes, but you should feel free to substitute. No matter what kind of cabbage you buy, look for tightly packed heads; they should feel heavy for their size, and not have any loose or yellowing leaves.

But the reality is that any publication strategy prioritizing “performance metrics” continues to put pressure on the people whose daily jobs already involve stretching themselves as thin as possible for as little money as possible.

A Data Engineer is not just an ETL person now. They’re not just a database person either. A Data Engineer is an amalgamation of all the things we have talked about in this piece and maybe some more. Again, remember that mastery of all these technologies is not possible, but one can certainly be aware and be skilled in some of these. That’s what is the need of the hour. And this will probably be the case for next couple of years.
In some newsrooms, these directives for non-Toobins are explicit. McClatchy, the owner of the Sacramento Bee wants to tie its reporters’ pay to how many clicks a story gets. In an open letter to McClatchy CEO Tony Hunter, the Pacific Media Workers Guild said that a pay-for-clicks strategy would “negatively affect newsgathering, employee morale and The Bee’s reputation.” According to the newspaper’s union, its owner is withholding months of backpay from last year’s contractually guaranteed raises unless the newsroom accepts the pay-for-clicks terms.
Learning SQL is not a walk in the park. The query language does not only require industry settings — server if working locally — but working with SQL involves using more than one database software. MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL to name a few.
These two groups of media workers exist within the same newsrooms, inhabit the same floors of shared office space under normal circumstances. One group is hunched over their computers, taking lunch at their desks, studying Chartbeat, trying to find one more thing to post for the day, terrified of missing a quota. The other is walking around the office, cracking jokes, having a blast, popping into the EIC’s office to say hi, sitting at a shared table because they visit the office so infrequently that they no longer have their own desk.
Cabbage has never been the sexiest of vegetables, but damn — is it useful, versatile, and delicious. It’s something I want in my fridge at all times throughout fall and winter, not only because it keeps for a long time (no quick-thinking required), but because, depending on how you cook it, it can be rich and luxurious (total cold-weather comfort), or fresh and bright (a perfect change of pace).

Although SQL is well regarded among professional developers, it is strangely

Written by Jibon das