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Comment by diveanon | Hacker News Reader

Some people do need to solve the same problems as FAANG, and GQL is a excellent solution to those problems.

Some people also want an agile api surface so they can iterate quickly, GQL is an excellent solution to that problem.

It is also an excellent solution for: - client side caching - unified RBAC - service stitching / microservice hell - api documentation via graphiql - decoupling FE dev from api dev - api automation - typed api surface

The list goes on.

To say that GQL is a just a band aid for bad leadership is nonsense, and discounts the very real reasons that many many experienced teams are switching to it.

I would encourage you to re-evaluate your position as if you voiced those opinions in an interview with basically anyone I know you would quickly get passed up in favor someone that actually knows what they are talking about.

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Boo. Let's not be too close minded. I'm a FANNG guy. A lot of our problems aren't even these mystical "FANNG problems" people talk about and get solved by REMARKABLY boring tech. So, I'd welcome his opinion in an interview. ^_^

Picking a non-sexy, non-scalable, "wrong" technology that does nothing more than solve the actual requirements at hand is a rare and amazing quality for engineer to have imo.

Everyone wants to build infinitely flexible, infinitely scalable machines using the most rapid iteration tools possible as though that's what "engineering" is. But sometimes... all you need is a REST API. Sometimes you need GraphQL. Sometimes, all you need is to stuff data in a bucket somewhere and call that an "integration point". All solutions have trade offs. Pretending otherwise, or faulting others for weighing those trade offs differently than you, is silly.

And then 50 people stuff data into different "buckets" and call them "integration points" and you spend months refactoring their horrible choices after you have identified why your services can't scale.

Non sexy "wrong" tech is exactly that. Pick smart tools that do the work for you so that you don't have to babysit your teams choices and micromanage every project.

I have weighed the trade offs, and it is literally my job to identify the problems that come from them.

Ah, ok, guy. We get it. It's either your way and your preferred tech or it's total unbridled chaos which is doomed to fail. Turns out there IS a silver bullet after all. I'm embarrassed.

Yes, because I am the only person on the planet advocating for gql, and more broadly advocating against allowing individual developers to drop data into "buckets" or whatever point you were trying to make about how freelancing in production systems should work.

I am glad you understand now.

More of this please :)

That is exactly the kind of problem solver I like to work with. Most of the time, “boring” tech will solve the problem cheaper, faster and as reliable and scalable as any shiny new tech. I work with GraphQL, REST APIs and even JSON RPC APIs on a daily basis and when you truly use those tools, you get to know where they really shine.

> I would encourage you to re-evaluate your position as if you voiced those opinions in an interview with basically anyone I know you would quickly get passed up in favor someone that actually knows what they are talking about.

I would encourage you to re-evaluate how you react to opinions that diverge from your own, especially in an interviewing context. GQL is not a panacea, and candidates should not be discounted because they understand this.

OP stated:

"At best it's a band-aid around dysfunctional inter-team working."

I would absolutely discount a candidate for having a moronic opinion like that.

Ha. Now we’re introducing threats. Don’t agree with my technical opinions? You’ll never work in this town again! Funny, funny stuff.

Unfortunately he's somewhat right. Not because the interviewers necessarily know wtf they're talking - they probably don't. But going against the current hype in an interview can only hurt your chances. Liking something like GraphQL, or React, or Framework Of The Month can't really hurt you even if your interviewer doesn't like it. But not liking it can be a real issue! I would suggest at least staying neutral on the current hype stacks in an interview. It's like debating religion - don't go there...

So not liking the tools your employer uses makes you less appealing as a candidate?

Also, React is a hype stack now?

You would expect to be able to have a discussion of the pros and cons, and recognition at the least that other approaches are viable.

> React is a hype stack now?

Yeah, kinda. You definitely need some sort of front end framework, but I feel like there should be something better than react. I use react every day and it’s fine, but I’m waiting for something else to come and take it’s dominant position.

Idk, a lot of the back office apps I build are basically glorified forms with some content pages / dashboard. You really don't always need a framework.

Try svelte, see if you like it

Yeah, svelte is cool.

I build apps for living and hiring a svelte dev is not going to happen. Stick to react and go hiking on the weekends with the guys in your svelte meetup.

Almost anything FB (and FAANG) builds is hyped to infinity. Everyone drank the cool aid on this one.

React and GraphQL are extremely hyped. People build static HTML pages with React because... React. People use GraphQL APIs because... GraphQL.

These days the first thing every JS developer I've seen asks is: can we use GraphQL (which in fact they mean Apollo)?

I'm not saying it doesn't have its use-cases and merits, but it's very much hype tech.

Edit: typo

We're a GraphQL town, buddy. You take your [use of literally any technology which isn't GraphQL, because GraphQL is the best, because nothing else needs to be used anymore] and gtfo of here.

It wasn't a threat, just a suggestion that denigrating some extremely useful tech that is saving organizations tons of time and money may not be a winning career strategy.

Well I think it was just a bit of advice really, not a threat.

If you can't see the positive benefits of a new type technology, then you might be passed up for someone else more open-minded.

But yes, I agree that you should be critical of all new tech, and not just accept it blindly because FANNG says so...

> If you can't see the positive benefits of a new type technology, then you might be passed up for someone else more open-minded

Conversely, if you are also incapable of seeing the drawbacks, then you are a bad engineer who also deserves to be passed up for someone else.

If you are a person who is not capable of seeing drawbacks as well, then you would also be a bad engineer who should also be passed up for other candidates, who are more capable of evaluating both the benefits and drawbacks of certain solutions.

If your workplace is solving FAANG type problems sure you would want someone who supports the concept of GQL.

Is everyone you know solving FAANG problems? If they are not are they emulating those FAANG companies tooling because they expect to be one or work at one in the future? Or is it a type signaling?

There is this over tooling over scaling wave going on.

Most startups fail because in their limited investments they over tool and under sell.

Do you work at a startup or a FAANG?

GQL has solved legitimate problems for us at scale, and is flexible enough to be used on some of our smaller projects as well.

I don't see the tradeoff that people are talking about, with GQL there has been nothing but upside.

Sounds like a great way to filter out employers.

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