# Unpop roundup! 2023

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/go-time-golang-software-engineering/unpop-roundup-2023
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/go-time-golang-software-engineering/unpop-roundup-2023.md
Podcast: [Go Time: Golang, Software Engineering](https://stenobird.com/podcast/go-time-golang-software-engineering)
Published: 2024-11-21T22:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://changelog.com/gotime/338
Audio file: https://op3.dev/e/https://cdn.changelog.com/uploads/gotime/338/go-time-338.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/go-time-golang-software-engineering/episodes/unpop-roundup-2023
Duration seconds: 2281

## Resource

A retrospective review of the most controversial and unpopular opinions shared by the Go community in 2023. The hosts rank and debate various technical takes, ranging from architectural patterns to web development conspiracy theories.

## Highlights
- Main idea: A statistical breakdown of the 2023 'Unpop' submissions, noting a trend toward more popular opinions than unpopular ones
- Failure mode: The danger of over-engineering new projects by over-relying on interfaces and abstractions from day one
- Practical takeaway: Leveraging existing tools like Postgres and pgvector to build AI applications without learning entirely new stacks
- Technical debate: The argument that 'greenfield' software development is largely a myth in a world dominated by legacy systems
- Conspiracy theory: The theory that the rise of Single Page Applications (SPAs) was driven by the need for persistent JavaScript-based tracking

## Topics

Go Programming, Software Architecture, Postgres, AI Engineering, Web Development, Single Page Applications, Cloud Platforms, Developer Productivity

## Chapters
- 1:00 — The Evolution of Deployment Platforms: A comparison between the Heroku era and modern Vercel-style deployments, focusing on the limitations of black-box platforms.
- 3:50 — 2023 Unpop Statistics: An analysis of the volume and distribution of popular vs. unpopular opinions submitted last year.
- 6:55 — The Interface Trap: Discussing the tendency to over-abstract codebases using interfaces before the actual requirements are known.
- 17:50 — AI Engineering with Postgres: How developers can use familiar SQL tools and pgvector to implement RAG and AI agents.
- 23:20 — The Apple Ecosystem Debate: A brief look at the convenience and friction of staying within a single hardware and software ecosystem.
- 29:00 — The Value of Modern IDEs: Evaluating whether the cost of premium JetBrains IDEs is justified by developer productivity gains.
- 3:50 — The SPA Conspiracy Theory: Exploring the idea that modern frontend frameworks were designed to ensure JavaScript execution for tracking purposes.

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## Transcript

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