Warning: this post is in a stream-of-consciousness form. Approach it accordingly. Figma recently posted a couple of articles ( one and two ) on the challenge they are facing to keep their database infrastructure up with the massive growth they are going through, and how they're solving it. The last article especially was re-shared in some of my circles, and my initial gut reaction to the articles can be summed up in the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park : “Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should” . After I (admittedly) quickly read the article a couple of times, I still did not "get it". IMHO is a red flag as critical infra stuff like that should be simple: simple to understand, simple to operate, simple to troubleshoot, simple to restore. Had I been in their position, what would I have done? I could have left the article at it, but I've made it an habit to never say something "n
Once again I am writing about a few things I learned from the Knowledge Project podcast. In this episode Sean Parrish (host) and Dr. Gio Valiante talk about getting out of the fear of failure . I found the discussion supremely valuable and decided to draw a small diagram to make sure I assimilated and retained the essential points. The diagram is below and is provided without further comments, as those are, well, in the podcast itself. Diagram from "The Knowledge Project Ep. #181"