About and Now

🔗 About the Blog

This Blog focuses on genuine news about the open-source data ecosystem. Topics covered mostly are: #dataengineering, #opensource, #python, #ETL. But I’m also passionate about #writing, #pkm, #productivity, #neovim and many others.

A Brief History

  • 2004: Registered sspaeti.com, my first endaver into web development with HTML, CSS, PHP
  • 2005-2014: Ran a local forum and party guide (this was before FB :)
  • 2015: Published my first data-related blog post
  • 2016-2018: Regular blogging on Business Intelligence and data topics
  • 2019: Focus on Open-Source Data Engineering
  • 2021: Migrated from WordPress to GoHugo, fully powered by Markdown
  • 2022: Started my Second Brain and sharing my notes publicly.
  • 2023: Registered the domain ssp.sh
  • 2024: Launched as a freelance Technical Author & Data Engineer

For two decades, I’ve been exploring the world of data and technology. What started as a hobby has grown into a passion for sharing knowledge about open-source data engineering. Through this blog, I aim to craft valuable & educational content for data engineers, BI specialists, and anyone eager to learn about data.

👨‍💻 About Me, Simon Späti

👋🏻Hi there! I’m Simon, a dad and family person with over 20 years of experience in Data Engineering who pivoted into Technical Writing. My passion is using technology and writing to make a positive impact.

I’m the author of this Blog, a top-ranked Data Engineering blog, and I’m currently writing a living book on Data Engineering Design Patterns. My work has been featured in publications like Towards Data Science and freeCodeCamp, and I’ve been recognized as a top writer on Quora and Databand.

One of my key contributions is the «Data Engineering Vault», a connected knowledge hub that revolutionizes how people learn about Data Engineering. I’m also passionate about Personal Knowledge Management, which led me to create my Public Second Brain.

I’m always excited to learn about new open-source technologies and share knowledge. If you’re interested in Data Engineering, Technical Writing, Neovim, or innovative learning approaches, I’d love to connect. For more about my journey and current projects, check out my Pathless Path, GitHub, my Gigs (Podcasts, Videos), or CV.

Thanks for stopping by.

Simon, Technical Author & Data Engineer
Me, Technical Author & Data Engineer

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📖 What I’m doing now

(This is a Now Page, and if a website, you should create one, too.)

I started a new journey: freelance for myself, mainly as a technical author but also data engineer if there is a good opportunity. I documented a brief history of my journey above. It’s a wild 20 years of online presence and 9 years of online writing, though I took notes from day one but didn’t publish any of it.

It’s a new chapter of my pathless path, and I’m curious about where it will lead me. I have some imagination of how it would be, but reality usually has other plans. Thanks to everyone who is reading my articles and following me along; this means the world to me. Please reach out, too, in case you’d like to have something written by me. I love to write for people with whom I’m already connected.

My ideal clients would be people or companies that do or have an OSS product and who need genuine data engineering-centric content, not marketing, but valuable content on how to use it.

I’m also reading The Good Work (Paul Millerd) (a continuation of The famous Pathless Path—please read it if you haven’t yet) and starting The Extended Mind (Annie Murphy Paul) again, which is a powerful book. I also finished Do The Work (Steven Pressfield). It’s not the best book, maybe also because lots of the content I heard/read already elsewhere, but I appreciated that it was short and that he didn’t try to extend it to 300 pages.

This update was on October 14th, 2024.

💼 Professional Services

In addition to sharing my knowledge through this blog and my free resources, I also offer professional services to help businesses and individuals in the data engineering field—mainly technical blog writing and sponsorships for my book. Check Out My Services and My Craft for Data Engineering Writing for more details.