The Joe Reis Show

A short rant based on my new article this week, "The Database Is Not the Data Model"
"In discussions with data practitioners, I keep seeing the same confusion. Someone pulls up a DDL file, a folder of dbt or SQL, or an ERD reverse-engineered from a Postgres instance and says: “Here’s our data model.”
Not to be pedantic, but that’s a schema. Schemas are great. But data modeling is more than just schema design."
Let’s dive into the difference in this podcast and the article.
Article: https://practicaldatamodeling.substack.com/p/the-database-is-not-the-data-model

In this episode, I chat with Steve Brown, an AI futurist, independent consultant, and former professional at Intel and Google DeepMind. Steve shares his insights on helping global leadership teams decode the future of artificial intelligence.
We dive into the common pitfalls of corporate AI adoption, including why so many AI initiatives fail due to poor communication and a lack of cultural integration.
Steve outlines a definitive three-step path to AI transformation, emphasizing the critical difference between 20th-century cost-cutting and 21st-century labor amplification. The conversation also explores how AI is reshaping middle management, the distinct differences between "AI-first" and "AI-native" businesses, and the staggering acceleration of physical AI and humanoid robotics.

In this Freestyle Friday episode, I break down results from the June 2026 Pulse Survey on organizational dysfunction among data engineers. I also dig into why data product ownership (or lack thereof) is one of the fundamental issues standing between companies and success with data and AI.
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I walk through exactly how I use AI for idea generation, review, editing, and drafting on my upcoming book, Mixed Model Arts. This is also the first in a new Wednesday format where I answer listener questions about what I'm building.
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Mixed Model Arts will be out soon. If you want to get a good deal on the e-book and on-demandcourse, please go to Practical Data Modeling.: https://practicaldatamodeling.substack.com/

Kirill Bobrov, a senior data engineer at Spotify and author of the blog Luminousmen, joins me to talk about his viral "Drunk Post" repost, whether the AI boom is real infrastructure or another bubble, why engineering judgment can't be automated away, and the process of writing a technical book on concurrency.
Luminousmen: https://luminousmen.com/