I agree. There's absolutely no problem with using, for example, ActiveRecord and MySQL when using Rails because it's the default option and it's not a completel

I agree. There's absolutely no problem with using, for example, ActiveRecord and MySQL when using Rails because it's the default option and it's not a completely horrible option as some of the NoSQL crowd says. Due to the vast number of libraries for any language, and the vast number of helper/managers like ActiveRecord or DataMapper, I'm surprised nobody is advocating them more as they do support the "lean, fast, daily updates" while still small. When you need a higher performing system, it's available, but take advantage of all the previous library research. You're doing a disservice if you spend too much time to ship on exotic system, when you don't need it for another 1-3 years.