The "real life" solution of leaving gaps & reindexing is actually my earliest programming memory (as a teenager)/lesson in cleverness, of feeling like I should

The "real life" solution of leaving gaps & reindexing is actually my earliest programming memory (as a teenager)/lesson in cleverness, of feeling like I should have been able to come up with a more clever/optimal/~~scalable~~ solution but settling for this awkward 100 200 300 thing. Nowadays I've used that approach like...dozens of times over the decades of real world projects since, and I'm still maintaining that web app I made in 2003, so I'm very glad I never came up with something unduly clever.