It's easy to make the same old jokes about NoSQL but there's a much more important lesson to learn of how it tragically became a punchline in the first place.
— Dax Ravi (@thdxr) May 19, 2021
Story time... https://t.co/YDwIqpr2um
I had always been a bit skeptical about NoSQL databases and the fad that was going on. I had never run into something that didn't seem like it had relational data at its core. And most projects never get to the point where you can't have a performant SQL database, even for pretty obtuse queries. I'd heard a lot of "here's what NoSQL does" and not a lot of "here's an example of a problem where you might use NoSQL".
In this tweet thread, @thdxr goes through the evolution of thought and marketing around NoSQL through the years, including my train of thought at the time:
The educational failure by 10gen lead to misconceptions that are still repeated today:
— Dax Ravi (@thdxr) May 19, 2021
1. NoSQL lacks schemas and data integrity
2. NoSQL is for niche non-relational use cases
3. NoSQL is unwisely optimizing for scale most companies won't see
I found the whole thread a bit enlightening. I'll still probably reach for PostGreSQL 9/10, but it might be worth revisiting the NoSQL space to see what's out there now.