Insights into Serverless and modern backends

Learning from tutorials is great! You follow some steps, learn a smol lesson, and feel like you got this. Then you go into an interview, get a question from the boss, or encounter a new situation and o-oh.

Shit, how does this work again? 馃槄

That's the problem with tutorials. They're not how the world works. Real software is a mess. A best-effort pile of duct tape and chewing gum. You need deep understanding, not recipes.

I've been building web backends since ~2004 when they were just called websites. With these curated essays I want to share the hard lessons learned. Leave your email and get the Serverless and Modern Backend email series.

Latest Serverless and Backend articles from Swizec

2 articles from February 2025 show all

I was wrong about databases

The best part about writing is that you get to learn new and exciting ways you were wrong. Databases are smarter than I thought!

*Why* the relational data model is so good

You've heard that array or list columns in a database are bad. But why? Yesterday it clicked for me