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Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

briananglin.me

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Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#21

Post by Nextgrid »

samlambert wrote: post #16

This is definitely a lesson in the importance of indexes in general. We are well aware of the potential pitfalls with our current pricing. I’m happy to say we are nearly done modeling different metering rates for the product which would mean significantly lower bills for our users and avoid issues like this. It’s core to our mission that our product’s pricing is accessible and friendly to small teams. Part of being i…

Would it be possible for you to add a spending cap? The user should be able to tell your system "here's how much I want to spend max" and if they exceed that they start getting errors or reduced performance.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#22

Post by derekperkins »

xupybd wrote: post #10

No foreign keys to make migrations easier. That doesn't sound like the best trade off to me. Having the database constrained as much as possible makes maintenance so much easier. Many bugs don't escape into production as they're caught by the database constraints. Those that do get out do less damage to the data. I know scale comes with trade offs but that seems extreme to me.

I'm a Vitess maintainer and I feel the same way. I don't plan to use any of the Online DDL because you'll have to pry my foreign keys out of my cold, dead hands. I understand the reasoning and limitations, but like you, the trade-off isn't worth it to me.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#23

Post by Nextgrid »

smoldesu wrote: post #3

Huh, learning about this "Superwall" product constitutes as my horror-story-of-the-day. It's paywalling as a service, just what the industry needed. Thankfully it appears to be quarantined to iOS right now, but God does it feel like we're headed right back into Stallman's predictions about how SAASS will ruin the landscape of commercial technology.

It's better than ads though.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#24

Post by andybak »

samlambert wrote: post #16

This is definitely a lesson in the importance of indexes in general. We are well aware of the potential pitfalls with our current pricing. I’m happy to say we are nearly done modeling different metering rates for the product which would mean significantly lower bills for our users and avoid issues like this. It’s core to our mission that our product’s pricing is accessible and friendly to small teams. Part of being i…

Glad you came here to say this because my takeaway was "What a terrifying pricing model. That would keep me up at night"

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#25

Post by anglinb »

samlambert wrote: post #16

This is definitely a lesson in the importance of indexes in general. We are well aware of the potential pitfalls with our current pricing. I’m happy to say we are nearly done modeling different metering rates for the product which would mean significantly lower bills for our users and avoid issues like this. It’s core to our mission that our product’s pricing is accessible and friendly to small teams. Part of being i…

Thanks Sam! As mentioned in the post, the PlantScale team was quick to credit our account for the overages and help us figure out what was going on. I'm personally super bullish on PlanetScale!

With any new product there will be tradeoffs and rough edges but the positives, like easy migrations and database branches have definitely outweighed any difficulties.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#26

Post by Spooky23 »

cperciva wrote: post #6
NicoJuicy wrote: post #2

0,15 $ per query... The world has gone insane.

It's not quite so crazy when you phrase it as $0.15 for reading a million items from the database .

25 years ago i built and ran a biggish database system that supported a reservation system.

Even given the limitations of the time (RDBMS cost, 9GB disks, Sun kit, etc), our cost of good sold for that type of workload was exponentially less. (At scale) Today, I could probably run that company off my MacBook Pro and have room to spare.

That said, the rationale for choosing this technology is cute: “After seeing a ton of the best GitHub engineers end up at PlanetScale and seeing the process GitHub went through to issue simple migrations, we chose to use their service.”

If you use the same methodology to choose a database that the public uses to choose between Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light, expect a suboptimal outcome.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#27

Post by andybak »

Nextgrid wrote: post #23
smoldesu wrote: post #3

Huh, learning about this "Superwall" product constitutes as my horror-story-of-the-day. It's paywalling as a service, just what the industry needed. Thankfully it appears to be quarantined to iOS right now, but God does it feel like we're headed right back into Stallman's predictions about how SAASS will ruin the landscape of commercial technology.

It's better than ads though.

It's better than targetted ads built on intrusive tracking that also enables several other abusive business practices. It's not better than "good old fashioned ads". Heck I'd even be ok with targeted ads if it could be done without the rest of the "destroy civil society" that seems to come along for the ride.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#28

Post by aspenmayer »

Nextgrid wrote: post #18
Grimm1 wrote: post #14

I feel like indexes are a pretty fundamental type of DB knowledge. In fact I'd say it's table stakes knowledge you should have if you're working with them. Further more, knowing that ForeignKeys typically apply an index to that column is also in my head basic knowledge. I'm sorry you got burnt, and congrats on learning a lesson, but you could have gotten the same knowledge by ever googling MySql ForeignKeys and saved…

> I'm not entirely sure why buzz around "developer learns basic knowledge" has this on the front page. The problem is that in the old days, not knowing about indexes left you with an underperforming system or downtime. But in The Cloud™ it leaves you with an unreasonably huge bill and that somehow as an industry we're accepting this as normal.

Using money to solve business problems is good business sense, but only if that’s the best way to spend that money. I agree with you that the status quo is normal, but nonsensical.

Re: Spending $5k to learn how database indexes work

#29

Post by vincentpants »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #15

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Millions burnt on consultants and licensing Oracle. I watched C series startups throwing it all away in a move to NoSQL. All those Amazon RDS fees will be lost in time.

Like tears in the rain
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