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The problem is more sunk cost fallacy than just being a capitalist problem. There’s an article from the Pinterest devs when they migrated from node.js to MySQL
by corodra 8y ago
The problem is more sunk cost fallacy than just being a capitalist problem.
There’s an article from the Pinterest devs when they migrated from node.js to MySQL. They were thinking the conversion would cost too much and take too long. They already spent a lot of time and money to create Pinterest on node as well. Plus MySQL isn’t hot and sexy. But they knew a lot of the problems they were running into would disappear if they converted.
I think it took like a week of planning and like a weekend to accomplish. And the devs got to sleep at night after that. I’m missing details, you can google the article. It’s on their dev blog. Also I bring it up because it’s the only db conversion I can think of that is documented.
Thinking you have to stick with something because of investing so much time/money even though it’s not working, is a super dangerous thing in the long term. It’s a human problem more than a systems problem.
- greenshackle2 8y agoUh? They switched from a JavaScript engine to a Relational Database Manager? Are you sure you don't mean a NoSQL DB rather than node.js? I googled a bit but couldn't find the article.
- tomatocracy 8y agoFor every one of those database migration success stories, there's a potential TSB style disaster though[1]. Problems with migration are real and potentially very serious. It's not just cost if it goes to plan that needs to be considered - for business critical systems, 'don't fix it if it isn't broken' is a good adage for a reason... [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSB_Bank_(United_Kingdom)#Migration_to_the_Sabadell_Proteo_banking_platform https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSB_Bank_(United_Kingdom)#Mi...
- justinclift 8y ago> Also I bring it up because it’s the only db conversion I can think of that is documented. A more recent one, for future reference: https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/nov/30/bye-bye-mongo-hello-postgres https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/nov/30/bye-bye-mongo-h... ;)