Archive

Dive into a collection of past posts and rediscover timeless content.

Data Engineering

Feb 5, 2026

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3 min read

Stop cleaning data before you save it.

Issue #036: Why ETL is dying and ELT is taking over.

Harsh Kathiriya

Data Engineering

Why you shouldn't use Postgres for analytics

Feb 3, 2026

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4 min read

Why you shouldn't use Postgres for analytics

Issue #034: The physics of Data Storage (Row vs. Column)

Harsh Kathiriya

Data Engineering

How to extract data without crashing production

Feb 2, 2026

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4 min read

How to extract data without crashing production

Issue #033: Batch vs. Streaming (DE 101 Part 1)

Harsh Kathiriya

Data Engineering

Stop learning tools. Start learning systems.

Feb 1, 2026

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3 min read

Stop learning tools. Start learning systems.

Issue #032: The 5 Pillars of Data Engineering (DE 101 Series). The Roadmap to Learning Data Architecture

Harsh Kathiriya

Career & Mindset

Why we spent 4 hours discussing a button color

Jan 31, 2026

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4 min read

Why we spent 4 hours discussing a button color

Issue #031: Parkinson's Law of Triviality (Bikeshedding)

Harsh Kathiriya

Failure Friday

Why deleted data reappeared on my server.

Jan 30, 2026

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5 min read

Why deleted data reappeared on my server.

Issue #030: The "Clock Drift" disaster and Vector Clocks.

Harsh Kathiriya

System Design

How to count to a billion with 12KB of RAM.

Jan 29, 2026

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4 min read

How to count to a billion with 12KB of RAM.

Issue #029: The magic of HyperLogLog.

Harsh Kathiriya

System Design

Why standard databases are slow at writing.

Jan 28, 2026

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4 min read

Why standard databases are slow at writing.

Issue #028: B-Trees vs. LSM Trees (and why Discord uses Cassandra)

Harsh Kathiriya

System Design

Jan 27, 2026

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4 min read

Stop checking the database

Issue #027: How to check 1 billion items in milliseconds with 50MB of RAM.

Harsh Kathiriya

System Design

Jan 26, 2026

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4 min read

Why adding a server crashed my site

Issue #026: The Modulo Trap and the magic of Consistent Hashing.

Harsh Kathiriya

Archive

Dive into a collection of past posts and rediscover timeless content.

Stop cleaning data before you save it.

Why you shouldn't use Postgres for analytics

How to extract data without crashing production

Stop learning tools. Start learning systems.

Why we spent 4 hours discussing a button color

Why deleted data reappeared on my server.

How to count to a billion with 12KB of RAM.

Why standard databases are slow at writing.

Stop checking the database

Why adding a server crashed my site

Query & Context