100% of kittens

For 14 months I lived with my wife and kids in a basement apartment of a large home in country. We were building a house, and it was a great landing place for us.

The owners of the home had a couple cats that lived on the property. During our stay there, there were four litters of kittens born (the original two cats, and then their kittens had kittens). Our kids loved playing with the tiny kittens and watching them grow up.

The last litter was born a few weeks before we planned to move out. Right about the time the kittens would be ready adoption is when we would be moving into our new home.

My boys put on all their best charm to convince us to adopt one.

My wife repeated a single refrain: “100% kittens turn into cats”.

Meaning, we might love the fluffy cute kitten, but it will (very soon) turn into a not-quite-as-adorable adult cat. And while we all loved the kittens, none of us were quite as excited about owning a cat for years to come.

While our kids (and maybe dad) was caught up in the emotion of a very fluffy, cute, and playful kitten, my wife provided a wise long-term perspective. Pointing out the obvious to us - that kitten won’t always be a kitten.

New data tools and technologies bring a similar level of excitement to data teams. The shiny logo, great marketing, and spinning up the tool for the first offers an endorphin rush.

This new tool/platform is great and will solve so many problems.

But my wife’s wise words apply here too: “100% of data platforms accumulate tech debt”.

Even the industry leading tools are prone to code bloat, dashboard Armageddon, and a proliferation of SQL queries running wild.

Upfront, before committing to the tool with all its excitement, commit your attention also to the tech debt that is likely to follow.

What are the plans to mitigate the tech debt.

And is this tool worth the inevitable debt that will develop.

I’m here,

Sawyer

from ​The Data Shop