front matter
foreword
“You’re not writing enough.”
It was May 31, 2008, and I was at UC Berkeley, listening to Pat Helland eulogize database pioneer Jim Gray. (Fittingly, I wrote about attending the tribute: https://mng.bz/Dpln.) Over a year earlier, Gray had been tragically lost at sea and was presumed deceased; the computer science community had now gathered to pay tribute to him, and to the influence he had had on the domain and its practitioners.
I had known Gray only by his works, but with each passing speaker, the throughlines of his life emerged: not merely of an exceptional thinker and extraordinary researcher, but of an engaged mentor; a connector; a bridge. Of the recollections, it was Helland relaying being admonished by Gray that I found particularly resonant:
He always said, “write, write, write.” He looked at me and said, “Pat, you’re not writing enough.” For twenty years, he told me “You’re not writing enough.” And he was right—and I still tell myself “You’re not writing enough.”
—Pat Helland, Tribute to Honor Jim Gray, May 31, 2008 (https://mng.bz/NBvN)