From "chemist" to developer, from Oracle to tdengine, two important choices in my life

author | Er Yue Interviewing guests | Zhang Weixuan （Wade）

Small T Reading guide ： In the last year 11 month , Zhang Weixuan, who once worked in the core development team of Oracle Beijing R & D Center （Wade） Turned around and became a member of Taosi data , be responsible for TDengine R & D management of . On the verge of entering 45 At the age of , He resolutely chose to change the track , Rekindling the spirit of adventure in childhood . from 90 Starting from perfectionism , He hopes that in the future he can work with the team to TDengine Make it a synonym for time series database . In this paper Wade It will explain the mental process of changing the track , Share your life and career experiences , Give some reference to those who need it .

from “ chemist ” To “ developer ”, Rebellious Xueba's way of self-study

Unlike most people ,Wade I didn't spend my junior high school days in school , Instead, I chose to teach myself at home . As for why I made such a choice , In his own words “ Class is really boring ”, A few words outline a rebellious young man .

“ Except English, which has always been a short board , I started from junior high school and basically all my courses were self-taught , Including advanced mathematics in universities 、 linear algebra 、 probability theory 、 mathematical statistics 、 Analog and digital circuits, etc , And courses in the computer department , Like data structures 、 assembly language 、 The operating system and so on are all self-taught , The habit of not loving classes has been with me for half my life .”

Different from the rebellious youth in the general sense , To be exact , Wade It should be called a rebellious school bully . For the first half of his life , Because of the rebellious character ,“ self-taught ” It became a habit of his , But this way of learning did not become a burden on him , On the contrary, it pushes him forward —— Not only after self-study for half a year of junior middle school courses, I was admitted to the high school that I liked , Through hard work , Make your own short board subject English in half a year 8 I got the score 82 branch . After entering high school , The awards of various physical chemistry competitions are also easy to get .

Out of the scripted ,Wade More often than not, the motivation for learning comes from interest . His dream as a teenager is to become a chemist worthy of the name , Therefore, when he entered the University, he gave priority to chemistry , Then I found that it was far from what I imagined , By chance, he came into contact with the basic computer course and learned FORTRAN Language programming , At that time, it seemed that Columbus had discovered the new continent of America , Interest and enthusiasm are also quietly shifting . At the undergraduate stage ,Wade Self taught the basic courses of the computer department , After graduation, I successfully entered the major of computer system architecture of Tsinghua University and continued my postgraduate study , Professionally , Completely from a “ chemist ” Change to one “ developer ”.

When the stars change , The maverick youth was gradually covered up in the torrent of time , In the next ten years of career ,Wade Become a more and more mature developer and even a manager —— He discovered HP-UX Operating system Bug、Solaris On C++ Compiler Bug（ At that time, open source software was just a legend , These operating system level products can only be solved by the corresponding departments of each manufacturer ）, I have done a lot of architecture design 、 Development 、 Performance analysis , Good at writing Functional Spec…… from EMC Go to Tencent and Oracle ,Wade More and more development and career experiences .

“ I have been doing basic software , I have a vague feeling about basic software , I once tried to be the head of the application and solution teams in two enterprises , But I can't bring up my enthusiasm . In my previous work , I often deal with database products , I also know the field of time series database . After entering middle age , I have been looking for a job that can rekindle my adventurous spirit , In contact with TDengine when , I feel like I have found .”

45 Year old switch track , Want to put TDengine Become the pronoun of time series database

On the verge of entering 45 At the age of ,Wade Taosi data has been added , be responsible for TDengine R & D management of . Before making this decision , He started with products 、 The team 、 The three aspects of the track have been investigated and analyzed .

At the product level , As Wade A database product that has been contacted and tried ,TDengine Lightweight installation package 、 He was very impressed by the superior data insertion speed and storage query performance . But compared to products , From a manager's point of view , A high-quality team can attract him to join , And want to build a high-level team 、 A corporate culture that focuses on products and technology , And is inseparable from the founder of the company , and Wade I was right before Jeff（ Tao Jianhui, founder of Taosi data ） I have heard of it for a long time , I think he is a very geek and full of entrepreneurial enthusiasm .

besides , When a mature professional chooses his career direction , Whether the track has the potential for sustainable development is also one of the concerns . stay Wade It seems , The threshold of temporal database is lower than that of relational database or strongly consistent transaction database , The probability of success on this track is obviously higher . But a slightly lower threshold does not mean that it is easy to do well , It's easy to be a top performer , Want to stand out in an industry , Product power is still fundamental , The application of the product is also crucial , And these two points have always been TDengine Focus on the direction of development .

Prior to joining TDengine after ,Wade Make full use of my previous development and management experience , by TDengine Inject new vitality . He believes that the standard for the real success of a product is to become a synonym for a certain field , Just like when we mention office software, everyone will think of Office equally , He hoped TDengine It can also be built into a truly successful product , Become synonymous with time series database .

“ In terms of products , I will try to make TDengine More balanced functions . I always think that the products that can survive in the market must be those without obvious shortcomings , Products that are good in some aspects and bad in others are very dangerous , I hope TDengine Can become a mediocre but never mediocre database .”

“ In terms of Management , My goal is to maximize the output of the R & D team . This output does not mean quantity , It means quality output . I also hope that this goal can be achieved by optimizing efficiency , Not by means of forced overtime . And optimizing efficiency will involve many directions , For example, grasp the product direction 、 Project risk control 、 Screening of invalid requirements 、 Judgment of task priority 、 The balance between short-term interests and long-term interests .”

meanwhile ,Wade Also leading the team to make breakthroughs TDengine 3.0 R & D gateway ,3.0 The successful development of the version will help TDengine To a new level .“ stay TDengine 3.0 In the version , We are designing the cluster 、 Precomputation 、 Flow calculation 、 Data security and fault tolerance have been optimized , I will meet you in the second half of this year , Coming soon .”

90 The separatist way of self-management

review Wade The age of learning , If we peel away the surface “ treason ” and “ Intelligent ”, You will find the self driving power hidden in a deeper level , And this power has played an important role in all stages of his life .

“ all the time , My request to myself is to strive to be 90 A separatist , This requires a certain degree of self drive and self coercion to achieve , Let habits become natural 、 Nature becomes consciousness 、 Consciousness becomes instinct . My personal view is that if a person can always complete the challenges he is constantly facing at a reasonable cost 90 branch , Then he can make achievements in any subdivision of his profession and ability .”

After entering the workplace ,Wade Still a 90 A separatist . In the track of personal development , He has always been a mixed role manager ： The product manager 、 Architect and manager . But from his cognition , Pure management is not only boring , And it is impossible to do well , Good management must go deep into the product .

Now Wade Has entered 45 Age threshold , It's a real thing “ Older programmers ”, For the current workplace filled with 35+ Age anxiety , With “ A n experienced person ” The angle of , He also has some different experiences and opinions .

“ Compared with young people ,35+ The number one enemy that programmers face is not the deterioration of their ability , It's not that you can't work overtime , It's a change in mindset . As you get older , Their ingratitude will weaken , To be frank , Is the lack of blood 、 Momentum and aggressiveness , Try to overcome the psychological changes brought about by this age . Want to solve , We have to force ourselves to do deep things , Try to be able to do what others can't .”

besides , He also believes that in basic software and 2B On the track 35+ The bottleneck can be broken by itself , This is one of the reasons why he has been sticking to this .“ As a result of the great development of open source software, the threshold for developers of application software and solutions has been greatly reduced , In industries with low barriers , Young people who are fledgling are naturally the best choice .35+ Programmers should try to choose industries with high barriers , Basic software and 2B Two good directions .”

For some developers who are confused and have the idea of changing the track , If you are also interested in entering the database field ,Wade It also gives the methodology he summarized and the required capabilities .

“ When entering a relatively new circuit , First of all, we should not seek to understand , Small ones , Understand the whole architecture first ; Then gradually ‘ Find a better solution ’, Ponder and analyze the details of each sub domain . Around the stability of measuring the quality of basic software 、 Scalability and other important indicators , In addition to solid data structure and basic programming skills, we need to have basic skills , There should also be a certain basis for performance analysis （I/O、Memory、CPU）, So that I can clearly judge what aspects of the written code may become a bottleneck ; Have some experience in developing distributed systems and multi task concurrent systems , So as to clearly judge what may go wrong , Be able to avoid or solve problems in advance ; Have certain ability of system architecture design and analysis , It is convenient for horizontal and vertical expansion in the design of the scheme .”

stay Wade For the first half of my life , He made two changes of direction , from “ chemist ” To “ developer ”, From database users to R & D management , He always changes direction resolutely after knowing his own needs , With 90 The struggle and efforts of separatism sprint to the unknown future . But maybe that's why , Only then did he truly live up to every choice .

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