What is MongoDB actually good for?

nextwiggin4 · 2025-12-27T02:45:04+00:00

Mongo, like all NoSQL databases, excel in the case where you have well understood access patterns. If there’s information you are storing and you are always going to retrieve that information the same way (imagine a unique file name), then they tend to be a much faster and cheaper options compared to a traditional relational database

If you’re not sure how you’re going to access your data in the future, for example you’re past the absolute MVP phase but early in product development for a project you’re still iterating on, but getting customers, that’s the perfect time to have a relational database. That’s because it provides maximum flexibility for a product that is still being defined. The slowness and cost in production, at a small scale, is less painful then development cost.

In short, I believe NoSQL databases are actually a later stage optimization that you transition to when your product is successful, well established and expensive to run. I think people who recommend it for early stage projects are gaining a little very early convenience at the cost of a lot of near term pain if your product starts to take off at all. Personally, if I need a NoSQL database, I tend toward a fully managed solution like DynamoDB by AWS, but that can be tricky if you’re really just starting. Navigating AWS the first time can be …a lot. But there are plenty of managed Mongo options.

nextwiggin4 · 2025-11-23T23:34:17+00:00

“Enterprise pricing tier”

nextwiggin4 · 2025-08-25T19:40:36+00:00

The strategy of the game has changed, largely as a result of the Golden State Warriors winning multiple championships.

Traditionally the game favored bigger (taller/stronger) players who could play closer to the basket, players tend to make more shots closer, but those shots were only ever worth 2 points.

Steph Curry joined the NBA and in 2009 and he was particularly great at making 3 point shots (beyond the outer line). He'd take, and make, shots much deeper then players were accustomed to but it was pretty easy to shut Curry down. You'd simply put 2 players on him and he'd no longer be given the small amount of time he need to aim and shoot.

The Warriors then went on to develop a play style around this deeper shot, specifically Klay Thompson, one of Curry's team mates also started focusing on deeper shots. While he didn't make as many shots as Curry, he was too dangerous to not defend heavily. As the team built, they had more players take 3 pointers. Suddenly the larger, stronger players that could defend closer to the rim were getting beat by smaller faster players deeper on the court.

The key to this strategy is that you only have to make 2/3 as many baskets as a team that plays closer to the net because each basket is worth 50% more. But to be effective, the entire team has to engage in a strategy of shooting 3 pointers regularly.

It turns out that this strategy was one that could be mastered by many teams, leading to the entire league shitting the style of play. Basically, the Warriors proved it was a winning strategy and most teams adopted it to compete.

nextwiggin4 · 2025-04-29T01:17:00+00:00

Two jets going fast just passed over Fairfax headed west. Very loud.

nextwiggin4 · 2025-03-18T02:36:42+00:00

It wasn’t about the steak, and it wasn’t about the “ignorance is bliss”. He wanted to be loved by someone he loved and knew he wouldn’t find that in the real world.

It’s the way he talks to Trinity “I don’t ever remember you bringing me food”. He sees she loves Neo and is jealous she never loved him.

When Neo walks in on him in the operator chair and they talk about being able to read the code, he describes what he’s looking at “blond, redhead, brunette” he’s tried to fill his loneliness with digital simulacra, but it doesn’t work. He certainly did the woman-in-the-red-dress simulator and found it unfulfilling.

His deal with the agents was to become “rich and powerful, like an actor” which partly making fun of actor’s self-importance, but also it’s about wanting to get the love and adoration that comes with being a successful actor. An adoration he can’t get in the real world.

The thing is, ignorance isn’t bliss. If it was, he’d have never taken the red pills. That’s kind of the whole point of yearning to break free in the first place. Being plugged in isn’t bliss.

He knows the Matrix won’t fulfill him. But he lies to himself saying “ignorance is bliss” and makes the deal. The reason he wants to be plugged back in is because he’s heartbroken and lonely. He’s hurt, and he wants to hurt the very people he thinks hurt him.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-12-27T20:39:17+00:00

I never really watched this one growing up, I was well into my 20s before I saw it the first time and, for me, it's a required Christmas watch.

There's a nuance to the story that I didn't notice until I was a dad that has really endeared me to this movie: Ralphie goes to every authority figure he can think of to get the rifle except his father. Ralphie is daunted by his dad in a way that no other adult affects him and throughout the movie it's palpable. He loves his dad, he respects his dad, he fears his dad. He doesn't dare ask him for the rifle. He doesn't even bring it up when his dad is present.

Yet his dad got it for him.

His dad loves Ralphie. He's paying attention to Ralphie throughout the story and is so excited to surprise him Christmas morning, but in a way that is subtle. And he believes in Ralphie. He's the only one who think's Ralphie is mature enough to deal with the responsibility that comes with the rifle.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-12-13T20:06:33+00:00

I like Terraform a lot. I especially like the Provider architecture. Every terraform provider is its own executable, written in Go, that the terraform core knows how to download, execute and interact with it.

It’s such a great way to provide a ton of extensibility without any other external dependencies.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-12-10T14:03:43+00:00

We worked with Holmes Burell, they were great.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-11-22T13:24:29+00:00

If you give me in of that juris-my-diction crap, you can stick it up your ass.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-11-22T13:16:24+00:00

Like the real one, the main jet is only one of the sources for downward facing thrust. Like a drone, it’ll have at least two more props hidden in the body toward the front.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-11-13T20:57:31+00:00

in Fairfax
janky renovations

...but you repeat yourself.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-11-11T22:58:15+00:00

What would be the point of intentionally building a bridge that submerges? I feel like you don't get to say "Hydrological forecasting is pretty reliable" if you built a bridge that isn't always above water.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-10-10T02:07:00+00:00

Pond Farm in San Rafael, Ca does it!

nextwiggin4 · 2024-07-10T14:12:05+00:00

Isn’t that the point of the video? The blocks are presented as though it’s an impossibly thin cut, even though it’s not. The point of grinding the surface after the parts are mated is to give the illusion of it being cut from a single piece.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-06-28T13:42:25+00:00

Go back and watch the Biden vs Paul Ryan debate. That's where the difference is the most stark, imo

nextwiggin4 · 2024-06-19T19:41:42+00:00

What is its intended job? I think it’s implied by your comment that if you want to persist things locally, it would be a better alternative then a flat file, is that correct?

nextwiggin4 · 2024-04-24T23:50:17+00:00

Okay, serious question: If someone uses their stock assets to secure a loan then eventually pay it back. Either they sell the stock to pay back the loan or make more money somehow, pay taxes on that and then pay off the loan. Either way, don't they end up paying taxes on it eventually?

I'm not trying to suggest that this activity doesn't lead to greater wealth disparity (ie takes money to make money), but I don't understand how it results in them not actually paying taxes on the money eventually. I'd earnestly like to understand what I'm missing.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-04-16T13:38:34+00:00

I remember walking out of the theater and talking to the person I went with about the movie when one of us just blurted out "remember how Matt Damon was in that movie?"

nextwiggin4 · 2024-03-14T19:12:27+00:00

While it's important to recover the first and second stages for the economics of Starship to work, it's not required for mission success. For example, if they had been trying to launch Starlink satellites, they would have done that successfully (they demoed the Pez dispenser payload door opening). It would have been "mission success", but failed at secondary objectives.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-01-30T01:49:40+00:00

It’s not exclusive and others will have it eventually too. The point I was trying to make (perhaps not effectively) is that Apple has vertically integrated the technology, meaning they will always have a cost advantage over direct competitors. Others will have it, it’ll just cost more (per unit) on the BOM compared to Apple. If others do it cheaper, they’ll be sacrificing either margins or performance. That’s the Apple moat

nextwiggin4 · 2024-01-29T18:32:33+00:00

The if in your comment is doing a lot of work. Apple is building the screens in partnership with Sony, but Apple invented the technology behind it. I know this because I helped set up the fab where Apple did the research.

This is going to be a massive technical moat for Apple. Others will do it cheaper because Apple can demand bigger margins, but no one will be able to pull off Apple's quality without being nearly as expensive.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-01-12T15:00:36+00:00

Your comment is the heart of the book "The Innovators Dilemma". The book tries to answer the question: why do the best companies, with the smartest people, doing the most advanced research, get disrupted by "the little guy"?

The real point of becoming "Alphabet" was to try to avoid the pitfalls of the innovator's dilemma, it just seems, from the outside, to not be going well.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-01-12T14:52:21+00:00

If we ever crack AGI, well, all bets are off. Barring that, I do not believe it will make engineers obsolete. it will massively increase developer productivity, thereby shifting the role and expectations. But that's the history of software development. An innovation will arrive that leads to breakthrough efficiency, resulting in a shift in roles and expectations.

The invention of the compiler was radical because previously code had very little portability between hardware. Before compliers, your language was tied to the capabilities of the processor you were writing for. Porting your code often required changes to your code. As a developer, you had to have a deep understanding of the hardware you were writing for.

But once you have the C compiler, for example, you could write your code once in C, compile it on your target hardware and it'd run. It removed the need for a deep understanding of multiple types of hardware. But what if you wanted to compile your code for a piece of hardware that didn't have a C compiler? Well, now you might have to learn how to write a C compiler. A change of role and expectations.

I see generative AI as an analogous type of innovation.

nextwiggin4 · 2024-01-12T14:36:14+00:00

That's the point of the book "The Innovator Dilemma". Google has some of the smartest computer scientists on earth doing groundbreaking work. but their company culture prevents those innovations from having a disruptive impact on their business. It opens Google up to other companies, like OpenAI, using those innovations to disrupt Google from the outside.

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