It’s is very easy to be
confused between investing in books or we should use the power of internet. If
you ask my recommendation, I would strongly suggest Books.
Why, let’s take a simple
example. Suppose you want to watch a great movie let’s say Avatar. Now you have
two options, first go to theater buy ticket and watch full uninterrupted movie.
Second option is watch on internet for free, sounds like a better option now.
As we all know information is scattered in millions of WebPages, so assume that
our movie is available in 200 different pieces on different websites. Let’s
assume some how you watch all the clips. Now here are the important question,
have you seen all the clips and in correct order? Even though you did, do you
really enjoyed and how was your experience?
That’s my point, it is
nearly impossible to build a foundation with millions of WebPages, simply
because of random order and overwhelming amount of information. So if you want
to build a solid foundation and want to enjoy learning, invest in books.
Internet is good for
studying very specific topic, like you want to know how many indexes we can
create on a table? In such scenario it will save your time but if you are at
very beginning stage of your career or even you are an expert, it is a great
option to start with a well organized and tested study material which is a well
written Book. Do you know what is the best thing about a book? Just by
going through its Index you come to know that what you know, what you want to
know and how confident you are about those topics.
Personally I know many
expert programmers who are great at their work but still have a complete
reference book like Sql server bible. It is good habit to go through its
Content and refresh your knowledge.
You may know this already ‘Motivation
Is What Gets You Started, Habit Is What Keeps You Going’. So make a habit
to study and set target like I want to finish one book each month or whatever
feasible for you.
I personally know couple of
people who have this habit. They both are loaded with professional and family
responsibilities but still they manage to finish one technical book very month.
If they can’t, they take leaves and finish it. That kind of commitment makes
the difference in long term.
Some people can argue about
on job learning, but to be very frank most of us do the same monotonous work
and margin for learning something new is very less. Most important question,
why you want to leave your career on chance or fate. Take the charge and drive
it in the direction where you like.
So many programmers ask me
this, we are developers why we should know the architecture and internals of
Sql Server. Usually I reply them with a simple question,
When you drive a car, do
you think it’s good to know what kind of engine it has (Petrol/Diesel) or How
to read and understand instrument cluster? Same way it is very important
to understand how Sql server interpret your code and process it.
It makes the difference
between a programmer and an expert programmer.
So start now and make the
difference. What you need just habit to study and learn. If you are wondering
from where you should start. I am providing a list of my favorite books here,
feel free to browse and check out other users reviews.
T SQL Programming -
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 T-SQL Fundamentals
Pro T-SQL 2012 Programmer's Guide (Professional Apress)
Sql Server internals and architecture -
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Internals (Microsoft Press)
