Actual quote of our database professor in third semester: "Databases are a lot like sausage making. Once you know how it's made you don't want it anymore".

😂😂😂😂😂

jajajjajajjajaja

Now you've got my curious why would that be exactly? I don't know much about database internals. Is it, because like a sausage their internals are utter crap? Or, is it just trying to say once you know the building blocks you might be able to build something without it?

@johnfoobar First off it was a quote of our professor. We never asked why he said that so I can just assume. I think at least 60% were meant as joke. The rest was maybe because databases as a research field is more then sql and queries. The theoretical basis of them is utterly complex and complicated as well. Properly understanding indices, key constraints, normal forms, transitive closures is hard. Also there is much more like data mining abd data warehouses. Si as I said just an assumption. Doesn't really make sense tho :D

@dasheck maybe since he knows there is so much complexity he may feel it's bound to be less stable. I believe I get to take a database course like that some time for my CS degree. I'm looking forward to it. 😬 I mean transitive closures. I mean closures were hard for me to wrap my head around in the first place but I have no idea what a transitive one is. Looks like I have some new research material. 😀

@johnfoobar I can assure you that he does not think that this while concept is less stable neither do I. But I think that because of this complexity it is not for everyone but only for the people who wants to deal with the mess. As I said dealing with databases as a consumer (either developer or actual User) is pretty straight. But being an actual database engineer must be hard. I wouldn't do it to be honest

@dasheck yeah just looked into transitive closures real quick. I thought they had something to do with closures in lexical scoped programming languages like JavaScript, but it's more a math thing. Seems like database systems go pretty deep into set theory. I am planning on taking a discrete math class next semester and am prepping for it by taking an MIT OpenCourseWare course this summer. So I know very little of the subject matter.

I've talked to my Dad who has a PH.D. In economics and teaches Management Information Systems at the university I attend he said classes he took in set theory were some of the hardest ones he'd ever taken.

Seems pretty rigorous and I agree it's probably not for everyone. I think it may be fun to at least know a little bit about it though. 😀 I'm grateful everyone has there own specialization so that we all don't have to be experts on everything.

Also are there things that are difficult that don't even have to do with the math?

@johnfoobar Not as far as I remember. The math oart was always hard. The rest was pretty understandable except for outer joining 3 tables where you had to aggregate on x columns and so on. You get the idea. I am still bummed that we never learned about NoSQL and especially the concept behind it :/

@dasheck yeah interesting. It would definitely be cool to learn about NoSQL. I use NoSQL at my work, but know nothing about it's internals or it's underlying theories.

@johnfoobar Exactly. It becomes more and more relevant for business and industry and yet we don't know why it is so mich faster or what are it's drawbacks and why. Of course we know domething from blog entries and other sources. But still. Universities should keep up with that