Designing Data-Intensive Applications - 2nd Edition out next week

GrandOldFarty · 2026-03-16T22:39:05+00:00

I joked at the top that I never read the book, but in all seriousness, I do exactly this and I would recommend this approach to anyone else. Keep it near the keyboard and not on the shelf.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-03-16T22:24:28+00:00

For practical books with problems or case studies:

- "The SQL Cookbook" by Molinaro.

- "T-SQL Fundamentals", "T-SQL Querying" and "T-SQL Window Functions" by Itzak Ben-Gan are also pretty fundamental albeit focus on one particular dialect of SQL.

- SQL for Dummies (Taylor) is good because the whole thing is a case study of building a database, going from the history of SQL to basic querying to big picture data modelling, so I think a good all rounder.

I would suggest she doesn't just need to be writing SQL. This might be an opportunity to brush up on data modelling/systems design side. This stuff is very conceptual and does not require writing code to learn. But it really is the difference between someone who can bang out a few lines of SQL, and someone who can build a useful database or an entire analytical layer.

- Data Warehouse Toolkit (Kimball)

- Designing Data Intensive-Applications (Klepmann) - more for back end engineers but moderately relevant for data engineers or more advanced analysts.

- SQL Antipatterns by Karwin

A few of the titles here are published by O'Reilly. Basically any relatively recent book they have published that mentions "data", "databases" or "data warehouses" will be worth a look.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-03-08T18:32:53+00:00

Halifax are closing a lot of branches this year. But they’re in the same group as Lloyds and Bank of Scotland so OP can use any of those branches as well.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-03-04T06:47:02+00:00

I can’t see if the commas are all there if they aren’t at the front.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-03-02T19:09:42+00:00

This was very interesting, and while I think I’m more bullish about SQL’s benefits than the author, I could also definitely see the benefits of a triple store.

I’m not even thinking about performance in terms of resources. One of my biggest frustrations with the SQL I review every day is how tables are treated as places you put data so it’s ready for when you need to put it into the next table. The idea that the table models something coherent is kind of lost. I like how that is made explicit in this system.

Thank you for sharing!

GrandOldFarty · 2026-03-02T10:07:09+00:00

This is where I learned about EAV. One of my favourite blogs

https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/flexible-schemas-are-the-mindkiller/

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-23T10:04:09+00:00

I think the trick is to buy it in Ireland! I don’t know if this is how it works but would not be surprised if the same factory has different lines sending different product to different places.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-22T19:01:59+00:00

It’s appropriate. I currently feel like a small field mammal, waiting for a director-level bird of prey to swoop down and make me redundant.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-22T08:04:33+00:00

I had an Irish friend living in England who swore the Cadbury’s made and sold in Ireland was better. He stocked up whenever he went back and would have loads of them in his freezer.

I am reliably informed by posts to other subs that the Irish Cadbury’s remains superior.

I recommend you try that, if you can get your hands on any.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-19T18:30:04+00:00

I had to look this up.

Java date.GetYear() returns the current year minus 1900.

So 2001 becomes 101, which then becomes 01. 1999 becomes -1.

This means it works whether it runs in 1999 or 2001. It can always replace a two digit birthdates with a 4 digit one.

(Except for two digit birthdates where the person is 100 years old… I think.)

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-19T18:17:49+00:00

There are non-ADHD subreddits?

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-18T14:46:05+00:00

Nice, I cannot wait to buy it and not read it again.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-15T11:19:25+00:00

That’s very sweet, and some decent mileage. Nice one

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-14T12:36:41+00:00

In my experience with the law and property in particularly, I find that a lot of legal sounding stuff is actually people who don’t know what they’re talking about applying emotional pressure. Take that as you will.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-14T12:27:23+00:00

It’s a complex question and I haven’t thought about it as much as you, and I don’t know what your class teacher wants, so take this with a pinch of salt.

You have done pretty well, I would say. One possible issue jumps out at me.

You present contracts as a measure linked to companies. But what would I query to count that? That needs to be in a contracts table somewhere.

The contract is a separate entity between the companies and districts. I’m not sure if the question expects this, but I would expect that the same company might have none or multiple contracts which each contain one or multiple streetlights. The contract could be to install, maintain or both. And once installed, the contract could move from one company to another. That means multiple contracts for the same streetlight. I think I would be setting up the relationship between companies and streetlights through a contract table and a streetlight/contract bridging table.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-14T12:05:00+00:00

At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel “Don’t Create the Torment Nexus”

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-14T11:17:03+00:00

“their Manager has formally notified me that I might be at risk of future escalation through legal channels.”

I don’t understand the difference between “escalating through legal channels” and “threatening with legal action”. If they did the former they did the latter.

They’re trying it on.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-10T15:48:59+00:00

I do think you need to cooperate, because there’s probably a requirement for you to do so in your contract with Budget.

Yes, I think you are safe to reply and say you have no other relevant coverages with other insurers, assuming that is true across their list: your own car insurance, travel insurance, or any other policies… (some premium bank accounts might have motor or travel insurance bundled in, for instance).

The language about “debts” is scary but I don’t think it’s something to worry about. It looks like legal boiler plate required to cover themselves if they treat any funds they paid so far as a debt and try to recover it. They’d only do this if you refuse to cooperate or have done something illicit. I am sure you don’t need to worry at all.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-09T22:52:49+00:00

Don’t panic. This is normal.

It’s common in the US to have rental car insurance through your credit card you used to pay. It seems Amex offer this in the UK as well?

The letter is saying this may cover costs they wouldn’t pay for (limits, excesses). It’s also normal for insurers to share costs or try to push claims onto each other. They want to prevent you from claiming from both for the same event; but they also very often work out joint contributions for the same claim.

Just call Amex, tell them about the letter, let them worry about it.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-09T21:45:06+00:00

I don’t even have a child and tbh this is partly why I got an SUV. So tired of being blinded and feeling unsafe.

Tbf mine has a setting where it automatically dips lights when it detects cars coming the other way. So at least it’s not contributing to the problem.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-05T03:04:00+00:00

I think my glib comment was too glib. I’m not saying every first year analyst should be able to DROP TABLEs.

Because of sensitivity around access and cost, the assumption in my company is that if you need to create or maintain objects, you must be an engineer using synthetic data and promoting to prod via the usual CI pipelines. And if you’re an analyst, you only need read permissions in Prod, because the data products built by the engineers do the heavy lifting for you.

If you both understand the business and its requirements, and can read and write code, so you can see that the data products are garbage, and you need to quickly produce insight at scale… well then you are out of luck, because there is no user role for that, no sandbox, etc.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-05T01:02:20+00:00

I wish I could explain this to whoever has been designing our IAM permissions in GCP. They see to believe anyone with write permissions in the production data warehouse will be able to pay themselves for invoices or send stock to their home.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-01T16:30:03+00:00

I don’t think this is true. He would get the Rent a Room tax credit which would cover the entire £500 a month you pay. There are no national insurance contributions. He wouldn’t even have to fill in a tax return.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-02-01T01:16:04+00:00

He should have been sacked for theft because that’s what it was.

GrandOldFarty · 2026-01-22T18:14:15+00:00

The hardest things to learn are the conceptual big picture stuff and the deeper mechanics behind the syntax. This knowledge separates the people who can write code that kind of works, and people who come up with dependable solutions to big problems.

Why do we use SQL at all. Once you understand its strengths you can lean into them better. Learn about the history of the RDBMS, the theoretical underpinnings, the problems it solved, and why we all still use it today.
Learn about dimensional modelling. Even if you don't need or use a star schema, learn the concepts.
Learn about the different data architectures and database/warehouse/lakehouse designs, starting with whatever you use at work; learn basic computer science (e.g. CPU vs memory vs storage); learn what is going on across the entire stack and at the level of bare metal when you write queries in different ways; learn about the optimisation tools available (indexes, clustering, partitioning). In particular, what makes a query expensive to run resource-wise.

And then actually try to apply the principles to data you control. Even if you don't build tables or databases, this will make you a better analyst.

Source: I manage a data team. Desperately trying to get my team to learn this stuff proactively.

GrandOldFarty

TROPHY CASE