I'm taking the DataTalksClub's Data Engineering Zoomcamp for the third time. The first time, I got through the whole course, but I had trouble loading the data for the final project. The second time, I quit early on. I had a job and the job was a priority.

What have I learned this time around? It feels like backsliding. Last night I spent three hours asking ChatGPT why I had so many errors trying to run postgres. I didn't tell it that I was supposed to run it in a Docker container because I didn't think of that. Why not? Because I quit the instructional video halfway through and started watching it the next day from where I left off. I forgot that I was supposed to run postgres in a Docker container. I finally posted my question on the Slack channel for the course. Thanks to Michael Shoemaker for pointing out my error so quickly and for encouraging me. I hope I can give something back when I finally get this.

I got past that roadblock. Next I had to load a .csv file into the database. I used a jupyter notebook (for python) with pandas (dataframe) and copied what the instructor did in the video. Success. Then I had to query the database using SQL. I don't use SQL, generally. So I asked ChatGPT how to query the database to answer the homework questions. Was this unfair? I don't think so. I would have had to look up the queries in a book, otherwise. I think it seems unfair because ChatGPT gives an answer right away, and it's specific. I think I'm slightly ahead of the game because I'm familiar with the data (New York Taxi Trip data) and because somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember what I can do with SQL.

I'm posting this for a few reasons. 1. The instructors want me to. I get points for posting this and for mentioning the course. 2. It will keep me accountable. I would like to finish the course this time around. 3. There is a slight chance it will help someone. I have my doubts.
The course is at https://github.com/DataTalksClub/data-engineering-zoomcamp. It started last week, but you can join anytime. It's one of the best courses I've taken.