Passing on Firebase

Sarah P — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 15:03:02 +0000

I'm building an app to make communication with different neurotypes easier. So far, the stack is NextJS for Frontend and Backend, Clerk, Prisma, and CockroachDB. My earlier decision to focus on using Firebase as the DB and authentication to my NextJS and OpenAI app has flipped to a no.

Originally I chose firebase for it's all in one options, authentication, easy use storage, and the need to not have to handle all of my queries via code. My thinking, this is a prototype get it out there first and see what happens.

Then a separate tutorial I was working on broke. And as I fell down a rabbit hole of how best to use Prisma with databases that are not PlanetScale, who stopped their hobby offering. I came across an article about GraphQL and Firebase by Prisma that changed my goal from easyish for ME to set up ---> to scalable for future sustainability.

Prisma is a tool that interfaces with the database, so you don't have to write SQL. It used to be GraphQL, but it needed a little more customization. At least that's based on my observations; there could be other reasons, too.

What stuck out to me about Prisma's argument was the specifics of how Firebase works as an unstructured database, how you can't query more than one level deep at a time. Immediately, I began to see how this could be an issue when writing an app to manage communication nuances between different personalities, neurotypes, and style preferences.

What if I wanted to see how many people over 40 were choosing the "demand avoidance" option when messaging people under 18? Getting this level of data would be very difficult with Firebase. However, with a combination of Prisma and Cockroach, I can write queries like that from the start and build a more robust dashboard for my users to see their own data more easily.

The other thing that stood out was more philosophy and having over a decade of experience building web apps. Google owns Firebase. It doesn't have an open-source mentality; it is the opposite. And when Google tires of something, it has a habit of switching gears rather rapidly. Putting all my apps in the Google basket is not the smartest business choice, even if it is just a prototype.

So, that was the end of Firebase for me. Authentication is coming from Clerk now, with Prisma and Cockroach. Although it has issues I may have to work around or switch out from, that's for another post.

Ethical Debt, we all have it. Now what?

Sarah P — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 14:39:35 +0000

As this election season ends like a very awkward date with that kid you had a crush on in High School, there will be many retrospectives. Twitter and Facebook both handled this final hour very differently. What does that mean for the future of the platforms and democracy? These are questions we all should be asking on repeat.

But the reality is tech culture itself encourages ethical debt by reinforcing the grind and grow mentality. While also supporting the power structures implemented by the founding fathers of this country.

Just like now, the 1700s were years of knowledge-sharing and fast growth. Ethical questions regarding diversity are brought up frequently at the beginning of this era's democratic beginning. Questions set aside in the wake of ambitious men, white men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They ultimately kept their resource theft side-gig. Landowners whose decisions kept slavery and inequality around by controlling the founding of this country. Decisions we are still paying for in black lives and tight elections with the racist landowners of our season.

But Ethical debt is just like Technical debt or laundry; nobody wants to acknowledge and face the pile in the corner.

It's more fun and exciting to build and reap the reward than to review or remove things from the stack. It's hard to accept the cycle of creation and death in any endeavor.

But the truth is that the virtual realm is just getting more significant in daily life. These problems, like angles just a few degrees apart, only grow with time and influence.

Suppose you are a startup just getting started. Be aware that someday you may pay the price for your teams' lack of diversity and pay equity. Either directly with the individuals, you harm. Or more likely, through what is hiding in your code, ready pounce and cause a public relations nightmare.

Diversity is a lens that opens up the world. It's like that bigger screen with smaller pixels. You don't see the problems that will take your company down because you refuse to see the people you are harming. But if you accept the cycle and both diversify your team and your process. You become part of the solution and put yourself ahead of the field.

The outcry for tech companies to deal with ethical debt is only going to grow from here. What story will the future say about you and the choices you made today?

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

DEV Community: Sarah P

Passing on Firebase

Ethical Debt, we all have it. Now what?