A friend pointed out a link to one of my blog postings over at Burleson Consulting’s website that I wasn’t aware of.
Whilst I appreciate Don Burleson’s fulsome praise of my communication skills, I think it’s only fair to make a few points of clarification.
1) I was concerned that readers might misinterpret my intentions when I wrote that blog entry, to the extent of saying the following, which Don didn’t quote
“When you see the solution, the words ‘Silver’ and ‘Bullet’ might pop into your mind. If so, let me point out that I worked it out by poring over execution plans, trying different approaches in full-sized test environments and, when you look at the problem, it’s actually a very localised problem with a large query”
In fact, if you look at the whole series of three blogs and the follow-up comments, you’ll see that this exercise might have been a quick fix, but getting to the bottom of why it might have helped took some time.
2) The link is broken (although I’m sure it wasn’t when it was first pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago). The correct links are listed above.
3) <joke>Oh, and I *do* wish people wouldn’t link to old, pre-Serendipity blogs. It means I have to go and tidy up the formatting ;-)</joke>
Anyway, if you still believe in the power of Silver Bullets, this might convince you otherwise, as well as giving you a few laughs.
You might consider adding rel=”nofollow” to outgoing links where you don’t want your link to boost their Google page rank.
Hi Doug,
Hi Doug,
I’ve never meant to give the impression that a single act with dramatic performances consequences is easy to find, nor that there will not be possible side effects!
In fact, there are almost always side effects, that that’s why we have test systems, right?
I’ll fix that link for you . . . .
Don,
I’ll fix that link for you . . . .
Thanks, I’m sure it was right the first time I looked.
I’m not sure that’s quite the point. If you describe something as a Silver Bullet, people might think it’s something they can just throw at the next vaguely similar problem and (with any luck) see an instant improvement. For example I saw a forum post recently where a new DBA had apparently seen a performance improvement at his previous site by setting HASH_JOIN_ENABLED=FAlSE, and was therefore proposing doing the same thing again. He seemed to think it was just a setting that had made things faster. So although handy tips and checklists are all well and good, I think the objection to calling Doug’s fix a Silver Bullet is that this type of solution is meaningless without an understanding of what it actually did.
Apologies if I’ve misunderstood what you meant by a Silver Bullet.
Hi William,
>> Apologies if I’ve misunderstood what you meant by a Silver Bullet.
Bingo! Maybe that’s what’s going on.
I wondered, what’s this stuff about Wherewolves?
The term Silver bullet was coined by the Lone Ranger, and it meant anything that got to the “core” of a problem.
Wikipedia notes:
SILVER BULLET
“The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness.”
Maybe this confusion is about the Wherewolf stuff, with which I’m not familiar . . .
Is the Wikipedia definition incorrect? (It wouldn’t suprise me!)
Don,
Sorry for the delay in replying, but I’m very tied up in my new job, don’t want to post on company time and went straight to a hockey game after work. (More on that later)
Actually, I liked William’s point, which more accurately represents my concern.
If you describe something as a Silver Bullet, people might think it’s something they can just throw at the next vaguely similar problem and (with any luck) see an instant improvement.
As far as werewolves are concerned :-
I wondered, what’s this stuff about Wherewolves?
Where I grew up, a Silver Bullet has a very direct association with werewolves and other mystical creatures. In fact, from the very first line of the wikipedia article here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bullet
A silver bullet is, in fiction, a method to kill magical creatures, such as werewolves.
So that’s where the werewolves come from 😉 and the next line expresses the rest of my concerns (typos reproduced)
Looking for a silver bullet” is also a metephor for the search for an impossibly simple solution to a rather complex problem. “There are no silver bullets here” is used to express the idea that there are no such simple solutions; that the situation is going to require hard work and difficult choices.
As for this …
“fulsome praise”
Is is a common word in Scotland? Had to pull-out my OED:
>> buttery: unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech;
Probably not common, but maybe in the over-flowery English that I might use when blogging. However, if you look at this reference, for example,
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fulsome
it can be used in different senses
Today, both fulsome and fulsomely are also used in senses closer to the original one: The sparse language of the new Prayer Book contrasts with the fulsome language of Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer. Later they discussed the topic more fulsomely. These uses are often criticized on the grounds that fulsome must always retain its connotations of “excessive” or “offensive.” The common phrase fulsome praise is thus sometimes ambiguous in modern use.
So, worst case, maybe it was ambiguous. Perhaps I could have used ‘effusive’.
At least I’m forthright enough to “call it as I see it”, even though your company competes with me . . . .
I think you know that I am also forthright enough to “call it as I see it” which is, after all, what this blog was about. People are free to read your interpretation of what I wrote (I used no rel=nofollow tags to ensure that) and I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s equally important that they’re free to read my interpretation too. It’s all free speech round here, you know 😉
As for ‘my company’ competing with yours, I may have worked for Pythian for a couple of weeks (I assume that’s what you’re referring to) but everything I write here is all my own work, not remotely influenced or controlled by them and I’d prefer if you didn’t introduce that into the equation as all of my comments here are the same as always – my personal views. Should I say something on Pythian’s blog which you disagree with, that would be the time to take it up with them.
Anyone who knows me in the slightest will understand that who I work for won’t have the slightest impact on me telling the truth as I see it.
The term “silver bullet” was not coined by the Lone Ranger. In fact, I don’t recall the Lone Ranger actually firing silver bullets – didn’t he just leave one as a calling card at the end of each episode. To fire silver bullets you need to make sure you have the right gun, a clear line of sight to the target, and the skill to shoot accurately – otherwise you just waste a lot of expensive ammunition, and may even blow your own hand off.
The origin of the term “silver bullet” lies in European folk-lore: generally associated with the belief that you had to use silver to kill various demonic creatures.
However,the use of the term as a metaphor probably stems from Dr. Paul Ehrlich who originally used the term “magic bullet” in relation to his search for a cure for Syphilis. In its medical context a magic, later silver, bullet is the perfect drug that cures a specific complaint with no risk of side effects.
The modern metaphor diverges from the Ehrlich usage by ignoring the amount of effort required to create the drug and test for side effects. The modern metaphor has accepted the idea of the perfectly targetted weapon – but also carries the connotation that the solution is quick and easy.
I am delighted to discover, from your comments in note #2 above, that you appreciate that silver bullets (in the Ehrlich sense) may not be easy to find and require a lot of testing. This wasn’t the impression I got when I first reviewed that article you wrote about silver bullets for Dbazine a couple of years ago.
Nevertheless, you might like to consider the idea that if it’s not easy to discover the “straightforward solution”(note #6 above) and ensure that it is safe, then perhaps it’s not such a straightforward solution, and not helpful to call it a silver bullet.
“fulsome praise”
Is is a common word in Scotland? Had to pull-out my OED:
>> buttery: unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech;
Trust me, that was not my intent. At least I’m forthright enough to “call it as I see it”, even though your company competes with me . . . .
Oh Doug, don’t forget those rel=nofollow tags . . .
Hi Doug,
At last, I’m starting to understand about this “silver bullet” thing. I’ve never seen your definition, and I was scratching my head at the Wherewolf analogy, and it explains a lot about the comments.
I never saw these Wherewolf movies . . .
I’ve always used silver bullet as the Lone Ranger used it, in the sense of “any straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness”, and I have a picture of the Lone Ranger (not a Wherewolf!) on the Silver Bullets book cover!
Anyway, thanks for the clarification and good luck with your new job. There is no better way to learn Oracle than working with lots and lots of different customers, diverse databases, and complex features.
My folks say that one year of experience doing remote DBA is equivalent of 3 years experience in a small shop, and it’s true . . . .
I think we’ve been here before haven’t we?
😉
Ooops…either I didn’t get the tag right or I can’t get links into the comments…
Link I was trying to refer to was:
http://oramossoracle.blogspot.com/2005/09/good-news-for-lycanthropes.html
It’s not your problem, Jeff, links in comments are tricky.
Thanks for the URL, though, some of us have short memories 😉
Typical BC-style. In addition to Jeff Moss’, Jonathan Lewis also got “quoted” on the BC site in a similar fashion which JL had to post an entry to clarify. 😉