Schemas for the Real World
summary
Relational schemas and fixed lists break on identity: after Facebook nearly doubles relationship choices in two years and Sam Hughes runs 14 SQL iterations before abandoning the approach, the concrete lesson is to favor flexible storage and UX. Projects that switch to a free-form text field (MetaFilter, Diaspora) get richer, honest data — MetaFilter sees 40% structured responses from voluntary text entries while about 60% opt in to Facebook’s relationship field — use autosuggest and nullable fields as a practical compromise.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Start
- 5:21How do we bring modern realities into the data, views, logic?
- 5:47Get schemas into alignment.
- 6:52What benefit will the user notice?
- 7:31Evaluating from user perspective gives us focus.
- 20:36Modeling the real world is complex and that's okay.
- 22:12Questions?
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