HomeAuthor InterviewsInterview with Author Pradeep Menon

Interview with Author Pradeep Menon

Pradeep Menon is the author of Data Lakehouse In Action. We got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What are your specialist tech area(s)?

Pradeep: Pradeep: I have over 16 years in consulting, providing services to global clientele focusing on modern data architecture, data analytics, data science, machine learning, and time series analysis.

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Pradeep: I had reviewed one of the Packt books and thus was offered a chance to write a book based on one of the blogs that I wrote. The journey of writing the book was very thought-provoking. It has changed me profoundly as it requires discipline, focus, and passion for the topic. I have more than 18 years of experience in this domain. My motivation for writing this book is to dissipate the knowledge and experience I have gathered in all these years.

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Pradeep: The primary research was seeping through tons of other books, white papers, and articles from the internet. I also conducted interviews with experienced personnel in this field to get their perspective.
I spend at least 50% of my time researching each chapter.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Pradeep: The biggest challenge I faced was framing the idea for a chapter. There were many days when I would just iterate on the concept and not write a word. However, the writing part was more manageable once the idea was clear.

Q. What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Pradeep: The book is about the Data Lakehouse architecture pattern. The book is architectural, and I have discussed the pattern in depth. My goal is to be technology agnostic and illustrate a concept. Therefore, I have discussed the ideas of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud computing throughout the book.
I see these technologies evolving in the future and becoming more real-time in their execution. Data governance plays a pivotal role in making this pattern successful.

Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Pradeep: In my humble view, other books in the market are focused on a specific technology. This book focuses more on the concepts and provides a framework to adopt with any relevant technology.

Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?

Pradeep: The key takeaway is a framework to adopt for turning data into insight.

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Pradeep: My tip would be the following: Don’t just focus on technology. Focus on the concept behind a technology. Technology changes rapidly, but the concept stays on for a long time.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Pradeep: https://medium.com/@rpradeepmenon

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Pradeep: I follow blogs on medium specific to data architectures and data science. I also avidly read HBR, MIT Technology Reviews and McKinsey Insights.

Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Pradeep: My author journey with Packt was very enriching. The team was flexible, collaborative, and open to listen to ideas. Yes, I would definitely recommend Packt to aspiring authors.

Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?

Pradeep: MIT Technology Reviews and Wired are my favorite tech journals. I keep myself updating by following the topics of my interest and having a schedule for curating and reading articles weekly.

Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?

Pradeep: Each author has their own process that works for them. For writing this book, I had to finish each chapter in 15-20 days. The first 5 days are reserved for research work and conceptualizing the chapters. The outcome of the first five days is an understanding of the ideas that I want to convey and the outline of the chapters. In the next 8-10 days, the goal is to be disciplined and write at least 500 words each day and refine the idea as it becomes more precise through the writing process. The last 1-2 days are for editing the chapter using tools like Grammarly.

Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?

Pradeep: One Tip: If you are serious about being an author, start by creating clarity about an idea that you want to articulate and write at least one paragraph per day on that topic. If you enjoy the process, then you will finally become a writer.

You can find Pradeep’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here.

Data Lakehouse In Action on Amazon.com