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I wish this were a joke, but I’ve actually worked on a production application designed like this. They use a single table with columns named PK1, PK2, PK3, PK4

I wish this were a joke, but I’ve actually worked on a production application designed like this. They use a single table with columns named PK1, PK2, PK3, PK4, and so on, dumping all kinds of data into it. users, orders, addresses, and even blob data. For example, PK1 might be the user ID if the row is a user entry, or PK2 could be the address ID if it’s an address object. And if PK1 happens to contain a #, that might mean it’s a user profile object because apparently that’s how they chose to distinguish it. As more entities were added, the table just kept morphing into this unstructured, unreadable mess. There’s absolutely no good reason for this kind of design. It’s just a lack of understanding of how NoSQL systems are meant to be used. The team was told to “utilize NoSQL solutions,” and this is the chaos they produced. I wish I could unsee it, but the damage is already done. It still gives me nightmares.

cruffle_duffle 2y ago
The real fun as you get more experience isn’t the immediate horror show itself but witnessing the process and internal politics that made such a thing happen in the first place. How did somebody so clearly incompetent get so much political capital that such a system could not only be created but perpetuated and even praised as a good idea. And then you start to wonder… do the people who praise it secretly know it’s hot garbage or do they genuinely believe their praise? And the answer to that invites even more questions. And then you get to watch everything else because such a monstrosity doesn’t get built in a vacuum. It’s probably the tip of the iceberg in terms of organizational dysfunction. Who are they hiring (and what does that say about you?). What process enables such things? Why do people tolerate it? Do they know any better? Is it fixable (probably not!) and if so, is it worth it (also no!) …and of course how the fuck do I get out before I start drinking the koolaid too?

cruffle_duffle 2y ago

The real fun as you get more experience isn’t the immediate horror show itself but witnessing the process and internal politics that made such a thing happen in the first place. How did somebody so clearly incompetent get so much political capital that such a system could not only be created but perpetuated and even praised as a good idea. And then you start to wonder… do the people who praise it secretly know it’s hot garbage or do they genuinely believe their praise? And the answer to that invites even more questions. And then you get to watch everything else because such a monstrosity doesn’t get built in a vacuum. It’s probably the tip of the iceberg in terms of organizational dysfunction. Who are they hiring (and what does that say about you?). What process enables such things? Why do people tolerate it? Do they know any better? Is it fixable (probably not!) and if so, is it worth it (also no!) …and of course how the fuck do I get out before I start drinking the koolaid too?