Grey Beards Podcast Episode #14 Highlights: A Conversation with THAT Jeff Smith
In the latest episode of the "Grey Beards" podcast, hosts Roger Cornejo and Rob Lockard welcomed the esteemed Jeff Smith, Distinguished Product Manager at Oracle Corp. The atmosphere was one of camaraderie, with Jeff sharing his insights, experiences, and even a touch of hillbilly banter.
Meet Jeff Smith:
Jeff's illustrious career spans R&D, Support, Pre-Sales, Product Marketing, and Management. Currently steering the ship as the Distinguished Product Manager at Oracle Corp, Jeff leads a team responsible for creating tools like SQL Developer, REST APIs, data modeling tools, and elements of the OCI cloud console pages. His passion is crystal clear - empowering clients to harness the full potential of their databases with the tools at their disposal. Engaging with the community is Jeff's secret sauce, as he firmly believes that the best endorsements come from the users themselves.
Jeff's tools are not just powerful; they're also free. According to him, it's about providing users with the tools they need and trusting them to make the right choices. A notable favorite in Jeff's arsenal is SQLcl, an enhanced command-line alternative for Oracle databases that offers a more user-friendly and extensible environment, especially for advanced scripting and automation.
AI Learning Models and the Future:
Jeff explored the growing fascination with AI learning models and their integration into database tools. He envisions a future where these models become integral to database functionality but raises a crucial question: When do we trust AI models enough to seamlessly integrate them into the tools? The delicate balance lies in ensuring that GenAI or other AI capabilities integrated into a tool cannot produce a wrong answer; after all, the stakes are high when dealing with production database capabilities, and accuracy is paramount from the get-go.
"Smart" Error Messages and the Oracle Legacy:
Jeff highlighted the innovation within the 47-year-old Oracle database, emphasizing the evolution of error messages. With the introduction of 23c, error messages become smarter without compromising security. The Oracle database stands as a testament to ongoing innovation, remaining a leader in the Relational Database world.
Hillbilly Banter and the "THAT Jeff Smith" Brand:
Hailing from West Virginia, Jeff shared insights into his roots, dispelling Hollywood's negative stereotypes of Appalachian Mountain people. The conversation took a lighthearted turn as Jeff explained the origins of his brand, "THAT Jeff Smith," born out of a need for a distinctive online persona.
War Story: The Lessons from Database Destruction:
In a candid moment, Jeff recounted a memorable war story from his early career-a tale of inadvertently dropping a production Oracle database during an upgrade from V7 to V8. A seemingly innocuous "rm -r" command in the wrong directory wiped out the production database. Despite the nerve-wracking six weeks it took to restore from tape backups, Jeff considers the experience a valuable lesson. Trusting someone who has been "burned" is a sentiment shared by the podcast hosts, emphasizing the importance of caution in database management.
This episode provided a glimpse into Jeff Smith's wealth of experience, his commitment to empowering users, and the valuable lessons learned along the way. As he gears up for the East Coast Oracle conference in December, Jeff continues to be a guiding force in the ever-evolving landscape of database technology.