All Models Are Wrong (with James Gayfer)
03/11/25 • 26 min
In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews James Gayfer about data modeling and the challenges of structuring databases effectively. James, who prefers raw SQL over ORMs, explains how many database models merely mirror table structures, leading to inefficient APIs and excessive data fetching. He discusses the concept of complete versus incomplete data models, emphasizing that completeness depends on an application’s needs at a given time. They explore trade-offs between overly simplistic models that require frequent queries and overly complex ones that attempt to replicate real-world relationships in unnecessary detail. James advocates for designing domain models thoughtfully, using patterns like repositories to maintain consistency while keeping data retrieval manageable. Ultimately, he encourages developers to embrace iteration, rethink their models as needed, and accept that all models are wrong, but some are useful.
Links:
James Gayfer’s Mastodon profile
All models are wrong, but some are useful
Dead Code Podcast Links:
Jared’s Links:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews James Gayfer about data modeling and the challenges of structuring databases effectively. James, who prefers raw SQL over ORMs, explains how many database models merely mirror table structures, leading to inefficient APIs and excessive data fetching. He discusses the concept of complete versus incomplete data models, emphasizing that completeness depends on an application’s needs at a given time. They explore trade-offs between overly simplistic models that require frequent queries and overly complex ones that attempt to replicate real-world relationships in unnecessary detail. James advocates for designing domain models thoughtfully, using patterns like repositories to maintain consistency while keeping data retrieval manageable. Ultimately, he encourages developers to embrace iteration, rethink their models as needed, and accept that all models are wrong, but some are useful.
Links:
James Gayfer’s Mastodon profile
All models are wrong, but some are useful
Dead Code Podcast Links:
Jared’s Links:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Permadeath (with Roguelike Radio)
In this episode of Dead Code, Jared explores the world of roguelike game development with guests Mark R. Johnson and Darren Grey from Roguelike Radio, discussing the history, appeal, and technical challenges of the genre. They dive into the upcoming Seven-Day Roguelike Challenge, where developers create a game in a week, emphasizing the importance of procedural generation, permadeath, and strategic mastery. The conversation covers how roguelikes have evolved from classic ASCII-based dungeon crawlers to modern iterations like FTL and The Binding of Isaac, attracting both players and programmers due to their complexity and emergent gameplay. Darren and Mark share advice for aspiring developers, urging them to keep their projects small and focused while embracing the creative possibilities of procedural content.
Links:
Seven-Day Roguelike Challenge (7DRL) on itch.io
Roguelike Dev Community on Reddit
Roguelikes Community on Reddit
Mark R. Johnson’s Game (Ultima Ratio Regum)
Dead Code Podcast Links:
Jared’s Links:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Ordinary Corrupt Memory Love (with Jean Boussier (byroot))
In this episode of Dead Code, host Jared Norman speaks with Jean Boussier, a key contributor to the Ruby community and Shopify engineer, about the challenges of concurrency in Ruby, particularly the Global VM Lock (GVL). Jean explains that while the GVL was originally implemented to simplify Ruby’s design, it now limits parallel execution, sparking debate on whether it should be removed. He argues that many Ruby applications are more CPU-bound than previously thought and suggests improving Ruby’s thread scheduler as a more practical short-term solution rather than eliminating the GVL entirely. The discussion also explores Ractors, Ruby’s experimental approach to parallelism, which remains unstable and impractical for most applications. Jean envisions a future where Ractors become more viable, gradually leading to broader concurrency improvements. The episode wraps up with insights on profiling tools and the evolving landscape of Ruby performance optimization.
Links:
Ivo Anjo’s GVL Profiling Talk (RubyConf)
Jean’s Blog Post: “So, You Want to Remove the GVL?”
Jean’s Blog Post: “The Mythical IO-Bound Rails App”
Dead Code Podcast Links:
Jared’s Links:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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