The Data Stack Show - The PRQL: Does Data Exist if We Do Not Observe It?

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

Eric and Kostas preview their upcoming conversation with Tristan Spaulding of Acceldata.

Welcome to the Data Stack Show prequel. We just got done talking with Tristan from Excel Data. Fascinating guy. He's worked in huge companies that are providing data services at the enterprise level. Really fascinating conversation. And Costas, we talked about many things, two things that came up. We talked a lot about philosophy, number one, and then we talked about data observability. Okay, so I want to ask you two questions here, and we might go over, so I apologize, Brooks.

One, do you feel like you got a better understanding of how philosophy sort of influences engineering work? I mean, that's something that I've thought about with you a ton, right? Like this study of something that doesn't necessarily relate to engineering work, influencing engineering work later in life. Well, okay. First of all, like, you know, I'm Greek, right? Really? Yeah.

You know, we invented, like, philosophy. I mean, and also, like, think about, like, personalities like Newton. Like, he was a philosopher, right? Like, back then, like, being, like, a philosopher,

like, okay, we are joking, but, like, philosophy is, like, it's one of these things that we have like forgotten, I think, about how important they are like in human history, right? But they are like on the basis of many different things that we are doing. And we might be considering it as like, you know, this kind of discipline that's like very abstract and like probably nowadays has to do more like with how we reason with math and like all that stuff. But actually it's like something that I would say that's like important for everyone like

to engage with like some degree. You don't have to become a scholar, right? I think it's like very, like you can learn many things that are like important for you, regardless of being an engineer, a scientist, a clerk, or like whatever, it doesn't matter. But I have a question for you, which is very... Okay. Okay. So Eric, what do you think? Does data exist if we do not observe it? Oh, man. Wow.

Oh, man. That's like the best philosophical flex possible. Okay, let me think about this for a second. Does data exist if we don't observe it? Okay, my answer is going to be a non-answer. We have to look at the snowflake bill to answer that question. But we do talk a lot about observability in this episode, and good on you, Kostas, for catching me off guard. Loved that. We did get actually probably one of the most comprehensive definitions of observability that we've had on

the show yet. I mean, really deep, spanning the spectrum from data collection to like ML ops type stuff. So if that interests you at all, or if you want some witty banter about philosophy, definitely catch the next episode of The Data Sack Show.