I became Australian today, my wife made lamingtons as they’re my favourite cake. They’ve been my favourite for as long as I can remember. I have this vivid collection of my dad picking me up from school. Driving down the avenue wide streets, stopping at the local bakery.
Kids hurling abuse in the backseat until he returned with a tray of lamingtons.
I don’t remember much about my childhood. But that’s stayed with me.
The persistence of memory.
Other things I remember instantly. The lady that was rude to me on the train ride. The changing of leaves in Autumn. But those memories are fleeting, lost to the sands of time.
The memories from my childhood constitute long term memory. Things that become long term memory are shaped by the emotional impact as well as how many relations those memories have with other memories.
These memories are SQL databases. They’re meant to sit in a dusty cupboard and get old. You return to them when you’re reminiscing about your life.
Short term memories are for when you’re in the moment. The depth of colour in a sunset. The biting cold in the winter wind. These are NoSQL databases.
I want to rapidly remember my bosses wife’s name at the company cookout. Short term memory.
There’s an incline at work I need to watch out for, in case I stab my toes again. Short term memory.
Since this 2019 and everyone needs to have an opinion /s
I will offer mine.
Postgres is your long term memory and Elasticsearch is your short term.
Justin Trollip
p.s. Postgres came close to achieving both memory types, with their JSON type….
But, pitchforks ready now, Search in Postgres is a second class citizen. Elasticsearch is a first class James Brown ready to rock your tired soul