/Nelson Elhage

A Very Subtle Bug tl;dr: "I like to say that complex systems don’t usually fail for complex reasons, but for the simplest, dumbest possible reasons – there are just more available dumb reasons. But sometimes, complex systems do fail for complex reasons, and tracking them down does require understanding across many of the different layers of abstraction we’ve built up. This is a story of such a bug."

featured in #466


A Cursed Bug tl;dr: "This is the story of a bug we recently put to rest; a bug which, from our very first inklings of its existence, I repeatedly described as “cursed.” Now that we understand it, I want to share just how delightfully cursed it was."

featured in #295


Some Opinionated Thoughts On SQL Databases tl;dr: "SQL as an API is in many ways a relic from another era, and while it’s held up remarkably well, it also feels like it shows its age... it feels like SQL engines barely even try to offer predictability performance or to build reliable guard rails against accidentally taking the entire site down."

featured in #228