Use It or Lose It

Today I started getting ready for a new project at work and needed to set up a PostgreSQL database. I have a database administrator that I works for me and normally I would ask him to set it up. However this is sort of a research project that I am doing in part to keep my technical skills sharp and so I wanted to set it up on my own. It has been a few years since I last administered a database and so it took some Internet searches to figure out everything again.

I felt like such a beginner as I got things configured. Fortunately I sort of remembered most of the steps and so I didn't have to comb through too much documentation. However it underscored the importance of keeping up on my technical skills.

After becoming a manager several years ago, I tried to do something technical on a daily basis. When that proved difficult, I tried to do something technical on a weekly basis. After today I can say that I failed at that goal. This new project will be good for me as I work to regain some of the skills lost and also dive into some coding that I have not done since back in school. It should be fun and the skills that I have lost seem to be returning quickly.