👷 You told me you don’t know how to say No
Jul 03, 2026 6:29 pm
Hi ,
I don't know about you, but I didn't even notice where the first half of 2026 went. It genuinely feels like we were celebrating New Year a week ago.
The most frustrating part is that you make some plans, a resolution if you wish, to work on new skills and achieve something big. The thing is that, there's always a big task, or something important in your life, that pushes your plan for tomorrow.
Suddenly, 6 months have passed and you are not where you were supposed to be where you were planning.
I hope that's not the case with you specifically, but it certainly is for many people I've talked in the last few weeks.
From my experience there are two main reasons for getting stuck.
The first one is, obviously, time. You have a massive goal, and the gap that you need to fill is too big. You just, don't have enough time to focus to make an impactful change.
The other reason is that you don't really know where to start. The truth is that, you have access to all the information in the world, and, surprisingly, instead of making it easier, it's overwhelming.
So, I have 2 announcements for you
Show & Tell Coaching
Last week I told you I need somebody to join for the next Show & Tell session. One of the paid community members raised their hand immediately, and we are now in the process to find the right time to run this session.
So, I decided to officially add this to the paid package of benefits for paid Data Gibberish subscribers.
So, if you are a paid subscriber and have a problem that want to solve, in front of the community, reply to this email and we may absolutely do it. But keep in mind, I plan to do these just once a month.
If you are still a free subscriber, now is a great time to upgrade.
Of course, I still do private calls, and if you want to talk through whether it is the right fit, you can book a free 30-minute discovery call here.
Quick Email Course
Many of you told me you struggle with comms and corporate politics, and more specifically, with saying no the right way.
Now, this is a big topic, and while I'm still working on this, I decided to build a short email series on saying no without ruining relationships.
So starting from tomorrow, you'll receive 8 emails on this and some other important topics that will make you a much better professional.
Each of these takes just a couple of minutes to read, and most of them refer to content you already have access to.
The goal here, is to take action quickly.
Now, since you have already subscribed to Data Gibberish, you already know this is all we talk about here, how be better at your job and get paid properly, but improving the thing nobody taught you before.
That said, here's what we talked about in last month:
The First 90 Seconds of Your Interview Are the Most Important
I've led countless of interviews. I've also been interviewed more times than I can remembers. And what I learned is that the first 90 seconds of the interview actually decide the entire conversation.
In this article I tell you the secret of how to tell your story in a way that leads the interview into a direction that puts you in the best possible light.
And yes, most of you actually do this in the wrong way.
How to Finish Early and Satisfy your Stakeholders
This one is all about managing your projects and maximising your chance for success.
I see this mistake all the time. Especially with engineers who have strong believes about what good looks like. I'm talking about folks who polish every single edge-case, build the perfect project, and still fail to make their stakeholder happy.
If that's your experience too, you will absolutely appreciate my decision framework.
Learn how to learn ship good enough projects.
How to Use AI Like This World Class CDO
Everybody says all managers will lose their jobs because of AI. I strongly disagree, and in our last chat, my friend Nick, explains why.
In this interview, he and I talk about how technical expertise is far from enough when building data infrastructure and reports. We also talk about how he uses AI daily and how it made him a high-performing CDO.
This discussion is for you if you want to learn why judgement is such an important skill in 2026 and forward.
Watch the whole conversation. You wont' regret it.
The 4 Questions That Decide if Your Idea Deserves Your Time
Let's admit it, you and I use different lenses when judging our own ideas, and ideas from other people.
The truth is that when a stakeholder comes to you with a request, you slow down. You ask what decision this changes, who will use it, what happens if you don't build it. For some reason, you don't do this for your ideas. They are always reasonable.
But your ideas, deserve the same scrutiny.
So, here are the 4 questions you need to ask yourself to know if your idea is worth sharing.
How I Made My Data Platform's Failures Public and Earned My Stakeholders' Trust
This is not your usual Data Gibberish article. In this write-up I am sharing about a project that makes our data downtimes much more visible. And no, this doesn't ruin our reputation. Instead, it boost the trust in the data significantly.
My hope with this piece to inspire you to think about gaps in your platform and think about it as a product.
Everybody Talks About AI (And They Are All Wrong)
And this one is a bit of essay about the state of data and AI.
The essence is that the AI adoption race is built on a benchmark that doesn't exist, and while you're busy trying to catch up, your actual job is full of problems nobody's fixing.
My point here is that you should absolutely learn new trends, but not fall for the hype.
Oh, this one was sponsored by my friends ad Cube who ran a very nice webinar. I strongly recommend clicking the link in the article and watching the recoding.
Here's how to think about data and AI in 2026.
On Working Remotely
I've been working remotely for the last 9 years, way before it was modern, and I'm never getting back to the office.
In this LinkedIn post I share why working remotely is the best for me, and what you should do if you want to be an effective remote worker.
There are some really good comments, too.
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Until next time,
Yordan
Let's Connect
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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanovyordan
Work with me: https://www.ivanovyordan.com/coaching
Start journaling: https://www.dearself.ai