The best move is no move at all

It's worryingly simple. In all of software development, system administration and database administration, the best move is so often no move at all. In fact, it often applies to life in general.

Yes, it's non-sensical and somewhat circular but is a statement that makes much sense. Thinking about it though:

• As a software developer, it is extremely unlikely that you'll come across a problem that no one else has had to solve and solve repeatedly. The first rule of writing great code is not to - if libraries exist, use them!
• As a sysadmin you are most probably administering systems that plenty of other people take care of, satisfying similar requirements to those that many of your contemporaries are burdened with. The chances that none of them have posted or blogged their solutions and thoughts are quite low.
• As a DBA, unless you have an environment the rest of us envy, then you'll have an environment the rest of us have relevant experience on - please use it.

It was Newton who said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" - the man was stupidly intelligent and listening to him makes an awful lot of sense.

If you can find a library, a set of scripts, a whitepaper or a blog entry/post that describes a suitable solution, you'll benefit. One of two things shall happen:

• Your problem will be solved, and you can do something else
• A possible approach will have been explored and excluded, narrowing your search

Additionally, either outcome will hopefully further contribute to the knowledge at hand of yourself and those who do as you do. If you find a suitable "off-the-net" solution, the mere mention of the specifics of your environment as a comment or reply will extend the suitability of the solution for everyone else. If a solution you find does not fit, mentioning why will either result in the information you found being updated and adapted or people saving time through your contributed analysis.

Simple really - but as the great one did say, it's much harder to be simple.