In all honesty though, I quite enjoyed how this article was written. Is there a listing somewhere of articles written like this, with algorithms or concepts explained using analogies to pop culture?
As someone who doesn't know/watched "Mean Girls" this seems confusing. Also I don't think it is fair to assume that reading of a blog post makes one to understand Raft better, at best they pique one's interest to learn more about it. IMHO Reading/re-reading of the Raft paper and working through an instructional implementation like (https://github.com/eliben/raft) provides a better understanding.
It’s not explaining any deep technical details. Think of it as a gentle introduction to the idea for someone to explain why they might want to read the paper, before reading the paper.
If the article was intended to be an intro to "Raft" algorithm I would've agreed with your sentiment. But this is what the article starts with:
Understanding Raft can be tough. In fact, I’ve seen conversations recently on social media in which actual technical leaders of infrastructure companies demonstrate a lack of understanding (!). Point being, you’re not alone.
Anyway I now notice that the article was written in 2023, probably I'm being too pedantic.
I think the point being made (I’m not the author after all) is not that they are misunderstanding how Raft achieves consensus, but what it means in the first place when we speak of it doing so and why that’s useful. By “technical leaders” here, one might think of CTOs, directors, and senior managers over technical teams rather than senior ICs.
That is so fetch!
In all honesty though, I quite enjoyed how this article was written. Is there a listing somewhere of articles written like this, with algorithms or concepts explained using analogies to pop culture?
Submodular optimization explained through "Gossip Girl" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ3ErkmUpLU
Not what you asked for but you may enjoy Pitch Perfect 237: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiC9X_MoE1M
The guy has a point
Stop trying to make fetch happen.
Previously:
Raft Is So Fetch: The Raft Consensus Algorithm Explained Through Mean Girls - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33071069 - Oct 2022 (53 comments)
Raft Is So Fetch: The Raft Consensus Algorithm Explained Through Mean Girls - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22520040 - March 2020 (4 comments)
I looked through the gifs and ended up understanding even less than before.
As someone who doesn't know/watched "Mean Girls" this seems confusing. Also I don't think it is fair to assume that reading of a blog post makes one to understand Raft better, at best they pique one's interest to learn more about it. IMHO Reading/re-reading of the Raft paper and working through an instructional implementation like (https://github.com/eliben/raft) provides a better understanding.
It’s not explaining any deep technical details. Think of it as a gentle introduction to the idea for someone to explain why they might want to read the paper, before reading the paper.
If the article was intended to be an intro to "Raft" algorithm I would've agreed with your sentiment. But this is what the article starts with:
Anyway I now notice that the article was written in 2023, probably I'm being too pedantic.I think the point being made (I’m not the author after all) is not that they are misunderstanding how Raft achieves consensus, but what it means in the first place when we speak of it doing so and why that’s useful. By “technical leaders” here, one might think of CTOs, directors, and senior managers over technical teams rather than senior ICs.
They need to stop trying to make fetch a thing.
Which movie would you use to explain Paxos?
"Chat generate a blog post on paxos but explain it through Mad Max: Fury Road"
The Postman (1997)
restoration of packet messaging across unreliable transport.
As a lover or Raft Consensus Algorithm, now I have to watch Mean Girls I guess.
But why?
lmao, i love this
“Chat generate me an explanation blog posts on the Raft consensus algorithm… but explain it through mean girls”
It's from 2019, it predates ChatGPT and co. Your comment and criticism is not valid.
Given that Raft was rederived simply because the authors couldn’t originally understand Paxos, I’m not surprised to see this.