31–40 of 323 posts
My exact response after reading the first quote. It is indeed fundamental, and something I am mindful of with every database query I execute. But I haven’t thought about the exact definition and its mnemonic in over a decade.
"Yet, despite coming up with a distributed archiving system that works in production". The thing is, did he? Really? I know plenty of people who get things into production and by working they mean, doing something that appears like what it's supposed to do. I usually find these are the people who blame everything else for why it's not working. A red flag is usually the phrase, "X isn't ready for prime time". The tran…
Well, in the absence of evidence in the contrary, they probably did.
If you’re writing database applications in a commercial environment then knowing what ACID means is part of your job. If you don’t know that, for example, debiting one account and crediting another needs to be done inside a transaction - or the converse, what you need to do if you don’t have access to transactions - then you shouldn’t be anywhere near a database. Fundamentals are actually important. You don’t have to…
Such as "I" - what is it again? "Isolation"? "Transactions are independent". Well--yes.
If you’re writing database applications in a commercial environment then knowing what ACID means is part of your job. If you don’t know that, for example, debiting one account and crediting another needs to be done inside a transaction - or the converse, what you need to do if you don’t have access to transactions - then you shouldn’t be anywhere near a database. Fundamentals are actually important. You don’t have to…
...I think that was the entire point of their post.
> I guess we would be much happier if we dared to admit that one man’s fundamentals are another man’s trivia
Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a web search.
These days, that’s equivalent to saying “don’t ask questions about what the day to day job requires one to know”.
Sites like stackoverflow contain answers to problems that people encounter in their day to day jobs, and if you eliminate those as potential questions, then what should you ask? And what is the value in asking some obscure question, other than making the interviewer feel smart and special?
“Atomicity, something, something, Durability?” My exact response after reading the first quote. It is indeed fundamental, and something I am mindful of with every database query I execute. But I haven’t thought about the exact definition and its mnemonic in over a decade.
In a google interview I explained CAP theorem using the speed of light. The interviewer didn't understand. He clearly wanted me to regurgitate the official definition.
Most of your time isn't spent in fundamentals though. I find a lot of my time is spent looking up some kind of best practice, or discovering what libs other people are using for a problem. Also, things may be fundamental, but not everything is built up from fundamentals. Maybe math is the best place to look at this. When you go to school, you just do it. Number lines, equations, calculus, matrices. Even through the e…
> There is another fundamental that is ignored by a lot of computer users. I think everyone who spends a lot of time behind a computer should learn how to touch type, since typing is still the main way of interacting with your computer. I sort of agree, but anyone typing out code at 120WPM isn't programming, they're writing. Programming is an intellectual activity, not a physical one so learning to touch type is wort…
Need to use the arrow keys? Outside the touch typing range. Mouse? Outside touch typing. Function keys? Numpad? Touchbar (blech)?
I have never felt limited by typing speed. Informal touch typing is good enough. Quite often it's the computer or network that can't keep up, anyway.