Eventually Consistent: We’ll Agree Later
A calm explanation of why distributed systems sometimes disagree — and why that’s okay.
✳ The notebook
Ideas, made a little clearer.
Engineering, leadership, and the human side of it all.
Find a thread that speaks to you, and follow it.
counting
All articles
1–9 of 48
Hinted Handoff: I’ll Hold Onto This for You
A gentle story about temporary failures, trust, and keeping data safe until someone comes back.
Clouds Don’t Eliminate Complexity — They Just Move It Above Your Pay Grade
If AWS already handles scaling, why should we still learn distributed systems? A reality check on abstractions, reasoning, and why system design questions still matter.
Heartbeat Missed: When Distributed Systems Start Ghosting Each Other
A story about liveness checks, false alarms, and why silence doesn’t always mean death.
The Librarian Inside Your Database: A Story About Indexes and B-Trees
A humorous story about how databases find data faster — turning full-table chaos into elegant B-tree lookups, hash hunts, and text-search wizardry.
Consistent Hashing: The Circle of (Distributed) Life
A lighthearted look at how consistent hashing keeps distributed systems calm when new servers come and go — ensuring the circle of data life stays mostly intact.
Sharding: When Your Database Starts Renting a Second Apartment
A humorous take on how databases scale horizontally — splitting data across shards when one box just can’t handle the chaos anymore.
The Database That Needed Therapy
A relational database and a NoSQL database walk into couples counseling — and finally learn that structure and flexibility can actually coexist.
Caching: The Friend Who Remembers Everything (Except When It Matters)
A humorous look at caching — that overconfident friend who remembers everything except when it actually counts. Explores cache hits, misses, invalidation, and the fine art of knowing when to forget.