These are the principles behind everything I create.
Foundations First
I don't chase the latest shiny tool. SQL, storage engines, data modeling, internals - these are the skills that compound over decades. I teach what lasts.
Engineering, Not Just Tooling
Knowing how to click buttons in a dashboard is not engineering. Understanding why your query is slow, how your database stores data on disk, what happens when you run VACUUM - that's engineering.
Radical Honesty
I won't sell you a "miracle" solution. If something is hard, I'll say it's hard. If your approach won't scale, I'll tell you before you find out the expensive way.
Ownership
When I work on something, I own it end to end. No hand-waving, no "that's someone else's problem." From schema design to production monitoring - the job isn't done until it's done right.