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It’s no coincidence! Apache Kafka is named after Franz Kafka. From Wikipedia: > Jay Kreps chose to name the software after the author Franz Kafka because it is

It’s no coincidence! Apache Kafka is named after Franz Kafka. From Wikipedia: > Jay Kreps chose to name the software after the author Franz Kafka because it is "a system optimized for writing", and he liked Kafka's work. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Kafka https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Kafka

triangleman 6y ago
But, but, the irony! https://qr.ae/pNKM3k https://qr.ae/pNKM3k
- tome 6y ago
  > Few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime ... Kafka instructed his executor and friend Max Brod to destroy his unfinished works ... but Brod ignored these instructions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka
  - jacobush 6y ago
    Damn, I thought did his friend execute him?! That is very Kafka-esque. But no, his friend was the executor of Kafkas' last will.
geodel 6y ago
In my experience Apache Kafka is indeed a real world incarnation of that Kafkaesque bureaucratic rigmarole that he described in his novel 'The Castle'.
arjunnarayan 6y ago
Jay Kreps is an extremely well read man; the reference is surely ironic. Enterprise middleware, after all, is and always has been a bureaucratic rigmarole. The nightmare has existed since the first ETL job was written, but by democratizing pub/sub access throughout companies, we can't help but be horrified by what we see going on in the dataplane. Apache Kafka, rather than creating this nightmare, brings light to it, just as Franz Kafka's literature brought light to the absurdity of life under evil bureaucracies. Now he can't quite say this outright lest he offend some set of his customers who have to live in this reality, so we have that vague quote about "he's one of my favorite writers", but surely we can take a direct literary reference as a wink and a nod and read between the lines?
- oblio 6y ago
  > evil bureaucracies I think Kafka's point is that those bureaucracies are not evil, just uncaring. Which makes the end results even more sinister, as you get crushed through no clear malicious act.
  - greatdesc 6y ago
    This is a great description. Sums up well my thoughts about Kafka but that I hadn't verbalised.

triangleman 6y ago

But, but, the irony! https://qr.ae/pNKM3k https://qr.ae/pNKM3k

tome 6y ago
> Few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime ... Kafka instructed his executor and friend Max Brod to destroy his unfinished works ... but Brod ignored these instructions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka
- jacobush 6y ago
  Damn, I thought did his friend execute him?! That is very Kafka-esque. But no, his friend was the executor of Kafkas' last will.

geodel 6y ago

In my experience Apache Kafka is indeed a real world incarnation of that Kafkaesque bureaucratic rigmarole that he described in his novel 'The Castle'.

arjunnarayan 6y ago

Jay Kreps is an extremely well read man; the reference is surely ironic. Enterprise middleware, after all, is and always has been a bureaucratic rigmarole. The nightmare has existed since the first ETL job was written, but by democratizing pub/sub access throughout companies, we can't help but be horrified by what we see going on in the dataplane. Apache Kafka, rather than creating this nightmare, brings light to it, just as Franz Kafka's literature brought light to the absurdity of life under evil bureaucracies. Now he can't quite say this outright lest he offend some set of his customers who have to live in this reality, so we have that vague quote about "he's one of my favorite writers", but surely we can take a direct literary reference as a wink and a nod and read between the lines?

oblio 6y ago
> evil bureaucracies I think Kafka's point is that those bureaucracies are not evil, just uncaring. Which makes the end results even more sinister, as you get crushed through no clear malicious act.
- greatdesc 6y ago
  This is a great description. Sums up well my thoughts about Kafka but that I hadn't verbalised.