Why PlanetScale Should Hire Me as a Developer Educator
A technical analysis by Eric Struhl
TLDR
(Too long didn't read)
- Database information is traditionally dry, terse, and overall hard to get through
- It doesn't have to be
- I can help PlanetScale build trust with developers by providing engaging content and reliable documentation
But first, let me build trust with you
Who Am I?
"Ever since I was a young boy, I've had a passion for distributed database systems design"- No one ever (I hope)
That certainly wasn't me.
In fact, I tried to avoid databases altogether. I thought they were some sort of magic reserved for programmers that could recite binary or invoke the secret regex incantations.
But maybe that's what makes me a perfect fit for developer education.
Let me explain:
I started professionally coding about a decade ago with no CS degree, when my only skills were Bootstrap and searching StackOverflow. Since then, I've witnessed the web landscape (and my skill-set) expand and change dramatically
- Websites became apps became microservices became monorepos
- JavaScript grew types and left CDNs for per-project bundles and server-side code
- CSS went from stylesheets to css-in-js to tailwind
- Questions previously posed to StackOverflow are now sent to Claude and Copilot
And in that time, my personal stack grew from frontend to include fullstack and devops. I started with simple html & css and now I can architect, configure, and deploy stateful web apps served by clustered linux distributions with reverse proxies and continuous integration pipelines.
But why does that make me the "perfect fit"?
Because that growth didn't just happen. It would have been easier to “stay in my lane” in frontend development. But instead, I took on the challenge to learn.
And so I've asked the dumb question. I've merged the wrong branch. I've broken the migration. I've used the wrong datatype for the wrong column. I've set prod on fire. And I've preferred tabs over spaces.
I know the excitement when something finally "clicks".
I know the frustration of when should work, but doesn't.
I know the information developers look for in docs and I haven't forgotten what it's like to be new.
It's through this unique blend of grit, experience, and empathy that I'll be able to forge meaningful relationships as an educator.
Stream Literate
I use OBS with a capture card and a DSLR
Travel Friendly
20% travel is a feature, not a bug
Ableton Aficionado
This is not really relevant, it's just a fun fact
Database Knowledgeable
See Below
Database Knowledge:
Things I know off the top of my head:
- General data types
- Modeling relationships
- Constraints and indexes
Things I would want to look up:
- Any raw SQL syntax outside of an ORM
- Which type of join is best for x query
- Degrees of normalization / normal forms
Things I would ask another developer:
- How to optimize query performance between horizontally scaled instances
- Handling polymorphic associations
- Strategies for restoring data from cold storage
Selected technical writing samples:
Wunshot is an OSS project that aims to be the Shadcn/ui of backend development. It builds upon a standardized base-layer so modular functionality can be copy-pasted on top.
Many of the pages are still rough around the edges, but this auth page is a good representation of breaking down complex topics into digestible pieces.
https://wunshot.dev/auth/overview/Webhook Rollout is a way to enable push-to-deploy on a self-hosted VPS. The readme provides valuable information to a technical audience.
https://github.com/lotap/webhook-rollout